Naqshbandi Haqqani

The Grandmaster, Grandshaykh Muhammad Nazim Adil al-Haqqani, is the Spiritual Leader of the blessed Naqshbandi Sufi order of the Sufis (tariqah an-Naqshbandiyya-t-il-‘awliya). He is now the King of the Saints, the appointed Sultan ul-Awliya, the 40th Grandmaster the Sultan of the Naqshbandi Tariqat, and the last Grandshaykh before the arrival of the
Imam Mahdi(a.s) and Isa(a.s), Jesus son of Mary. During every age there is a Saint responsible for all this Lights.

Friday, October 01, 2004

Wahabisme, Salafi, Ibn Tamiya, Osama

Dont Listening Who Deny Tariqah
Mawlana Syaikh Nazim Adil al Haqqani

Our Mursyid, Maulana Syaikh Nazim Al Haqqani has warned us about the danger of listening those who deny tariqats. [Please you read Mercy Oceans Book Two, Winter Lectures, 1980]

Grandsheikh Abdullah al Faizi Daghestani is cautioning us on an important point. Shah Bahauddin Naqshband, the main pillar of the Naqshbandi Order, was advising his khalifa, Ala'udin Al Bukhori: "DO NOT listen to a learned-person who denies the way of Tariqats"
If listening to him, then for three days syaitan will be in command of you. If you do not ask for repentance in 3 days, syaitan will take you for fourty days. Then if you do not repent in 40 days, you must expect a CURSE to fall on you for one year.

Now in our times, so many people are refusing Tariqats. Leave them. Do NOT argue with them. They are like Abu Jahl. Rasulullah SAW spoke to him, but Abu Jahl did not accept.
We are not more powerful than Rasulullah SAW .....Astaghfirullahal adhiim wa atuubu ilaih...Wassalamu'alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu...

Oh people, it is important, don't listen to everyone's speech. Don't read every book because in it also so many poisons. They're giving meaning through their, on behalf of their egos. They are not giving meanings, they're so proud people that they're never asking to look old books or awliyahs. They're saying we know also, you don't know. Awliyahs knowing and when ummah losing respect of awliyahs, they lost everything. Therefore on ummah now whole nation of Saydinah Muhammad (saws) they are poison and they should be taken away. Only whom they not poison should remain for Mehdi (as).

Wa min Allah at Tawfiq

FITNAH WAHABIYA, FOLLOW SUNNAH and THEY CALL YOU BID'AH
Mawlana Syaikh Hisyam Kabbani
From the Book : Approaching to Armageddon

One of the signs, that we see today among us, is that the Prophet (s) said. "`An ibn mas`ud qaala kayfa antum idha yakthur feekum al bida` wa yarbu feeha hatta yarju feeha as-sagheer wa al-kabeer." Ibn Mas`ud said, "A time will be come when something [called Islam] in which the innovation is prevalent and the child will be raised in it and the elder will have already become white-haired in it."

We are in that now. A lot of ideologies are coming up today, telling us that whatever came before us was wrong. ".wa yusallimu feeha al-`aajim" - ".your affairs will be given to the
non-Arabs," the foreigners will control you. There will be different people, other than people of the grassroots controlling you. You see someone out of nowhere becoming a leader. One who knows nothing about the religion becomes a leader, controlling the Muslim countries or Arab states. And he said, "hatta ya`malu ar-rajulu bis-sunnati fa yuqaalu bida`tun, bid`a" - "when a man follows the Sunnah, it will be said of him, 'Innovation, innovation.'" [1]

It means the people will be acting according to the Sunnah of the Prophet and the others will tell them "bida`tun, bida`." That was foretold 1400 years ago. Today if you do anything according to the Sunnah of the Prophet (s) they tell you "bida`, bida`." Are we seeing this or not? You cannot move anywhere except they tell you "bida`!"; they tell you
"haraam!" they tell you "shirk!", "kufr." There is a group of people among the Muslims, who if they don't like what you do, say "bida`, bida`."

You go to any mosque, you can hear that word easily. Are you hearing it or not? [Yes.]
And the Prophet (s) mentioned that 1400 years ago. And he (s) said when that happens that is from ashraat as-sa`at - Signs of the Last Days. We never heard that "bida`, bida`" before, when we were young we never heard it used like that. But the new generation all say that, they were raised in it. They are in that hadith now. Everything they are learning from those who said "bida`, bida`," and they go on the street and tell everyone this is bida`, this is haraam.

That is one of the most problematical issues we are facing today. They said [addressing Ibn Mas`ud], "Ya Abdur Rahman, when will that happen?" He said, "idha kathurat umara`ahum" - "when their leaders will increase". Today there is not one person now without a different amir. You don't find three without an amir. You don't find one without an amir. Look on the Internet. Everyone has become his own amir. Each one makes a verdict, a fatwa. ".wa qallat umana'ahum." - "And your trustworthy ones will decrease." ".wa kathurat qura'ahum. Wa qallat fuqaha'uhum." - "And the number of their Qur' an reciters will increase and the number of their fuqaha will decrease."

It means they won't have any knowledge of hadith or fiqh. Only memorizing Qur'an. That is a sign and today we see it. There are so many people memorizing Qur'an. He was not saying that is bad, but it is a sign. Today we see that everywhere, people sending their children to learn the Qur'an, but "qallat fuqaha'uhum," - "their scholars of fiqh have decreased." There is no more 'ilm, no more fiqh. No one is learning the meanings of Qur'an, no one
is learning the hadith, no on is learning the reasons for revelation of each verse.

Bismillah hir-Rahman ar-Raheem, In the Name of Almighty Allah,
Most Merciful, Most Compassionate

Do not remain a man of intellect among the Lovers, especially if you Love that Sweet-Faced Beloved (Sayyiduna Muhammad, SAWS). May the men of "intellect" stay far from the Lovers,
may the smell of dung stay far from the east wind! If a man of "intellect" should enter, tell him the way is blocked; but if a Lover should come, extend him a hundred welcomes!

By the time "intellect" has deliberated and reflected, Love has flown to the Seventh Heaven. By the time "intellect" has found a camel for the hajj, Love has circled the Kaaba!
Love has come and covered my mouth: "Throw away your poetry and come to the stars!"

Ode 182, Translation by William C. Chittick

Ibn Tamiya and Wahabism
Mawlana Syaikh Hisyam Kabbani

Even you mentioned Ibn Taymiyya, I don't like to mention him but to show the Wahabis that your master was a slave at the door of Sayyidina Abdul Qadir al-Jilani. He praised him in the book Fatawa ibn Taymiyya. Then you have audio, video, and that gives us the meaning that the prophet is always present, looking at you and seeing what you are doing. And if you are clever you will be able to see it. And if you are not, then follow one who is. That is an order in hadith, "in kuntum thalathah, fa-amiru ahadakum." - "If you are three, make one your leader."

That amir must not be blind, he must not be an unintellectual person. He must be a person who can see the footsteps of the Prophet (s).There is no need to say professor or doctor, Ahmad is enough of an honor. Alhamdulillah. It is a fakhr to be named after Sayiddina Muhammad (s). We are not Wahabi, happy with the diploma we take from the university. Who cares for that? I heard that at the beginning, when this gathering first started, there were two people coming and listening

The hadith "kuntu sama`ulladhee yasma`u bih" That means, "I will give him a special receiver to hear, that he will hear only what that wali can hear." I am going to give him what people cannot hear? What can people not hear? You cannot hear, he cannot hear, . you will hear the voice that people cannot hear because they don't have that opening in their ears. He will give you from that attribute as-Sam`ee, as Sariya heard Sayyidina `Umar's voice from Sham. "O Sariya! Keep to the mountain," from Madina to Sham. Sariya was able to hear. Sayyidina `Umar (r) was able to hear and to see. So Sariya has an audio voice only. Sayyidina Umar has video and audio. That is technology from 1400 years ago, since the time of the Prophet (s). Then the hadith continues, "I will give him sight that he can see with, I will be the eyes which he can see with." At that time you have audio, video and TV. Then you can see the Prophet (s) - how he is moving, how he is speaking, how he is acting, and then you can follow. If you cannot see that, then follow those who can. Not everyone can do that, only a few can do that, only awliya can do that, like Sayyidina Abdul Qadir Jilani.

Even though you mentioned Ibn Taymiyya, I don't like to mention him except to show the Wahabis that your "master" was a slave at the door of Sayyidina Abdul Qadir al-Jilani, and he praised him in the book Fatawa ibn Taymiyya. Then you have audio, video, and that gives us the meaning that the prophet is always present, looking at you and seeing what you are doing. And if you are clever you will be able to see it. And if you are not, then follow one who is. That is an order in hadith, "in kuntum thalathah, fa-ameeru ahadakum" - "If you are three, make one your leader." That ameer must not be blind, he must not be an unintellectual person. He must be a person who can see the footsteps of the Prophet (s).

WAHHABISME
Mawlana Syaikh Hisyam Kabbani

Bismillah ir-rahman ir-raheem.dua.
On October 24, an ISCA delegation, led by Chairman Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani, traveled to Washington, DC, to participate in a groundbreaking conference on Sufism and its implications for United States foreign policy. ISCA was honored to participate in the conference, sponsored by the Nixon Center, which was held at the J.W. Marriott Hotel just blocks from the White House. More than 100 key government officials and representatives from Capitol-area think tanks attended the symposium, which featured presentations by a number of leading academics and foreign policy experts.

The highlight of the event was a keynote panel featuring Shaykh Kabbani and Professor Bernard Lewis of Princeton University. Shaykh Kabbani told the assembly that America should reach out to the Sufis if it wants to improve relations with the Muslim world.
“They are reaching out to the Muslim and the non-Muslim,” he explained. “It’s a bridge between different cultures.”

However open-minded they might be, Shaykh Kabbani stressed that the Sufis are firmly grounded in Islam. “There was no one scholar – until recently – that denied tasawwuf (Sufism),” he said. Professor Lewis also spoke on the inclusive nature of Sufism that transcends mere tolerance. He said that the Sufis “can still play a great role” in establishing more positive and constructive relations between the West and the Muslim world and eliminating the miscommunication between cultures that has characterized the past several centuries.

Dr. Bernard Lewis (bottom left) listens as ISCA Executive Director Hedieh Mirahmadi (top right) speaks about the foreign policy implications of Sufism. Other panelists include (left to right) Dr. Zeki Saritoprak from John Carroll University, moderator Zeyno Baran from the Nixon Center and Dr. Timothy Gianotti from the University of Oregon. When asked whom the U.S. government should talk to in the Muslim world, Professor Lewis replied simply, “I would suggest they talk to Shaykh Kabbani.”

Other speakers included Assistant Secretary of Defense Peter Rodman, Dr. Timothy Gianotti from the University of Oregon, Dr. Alan Godlas from the University of Georgia and ISCA Executive Director Hedieh Mirahmadi. Dr. Mirahmadi said that, unlike radical Islamists, Sufis are not on a collision course with the West.

“It becomes self-evident then, for our long-term peace and security, to foster and encourage a Muslim world that doctrinally can co-exist in a pluralistic society,” she said. “I’m not asking U.S. foreign policy to invent an Islam that exists that way, it existed that way for 1,400 years.” Alex Alexiev, senior fellow at the Center for Security Policy, said that the conflict between Sufism and Wahhabism is “a struggle for the soul of Islam.” He said that, since the 1970s, the government of Saudi Arabia has been spending an average of $2.5 billion a year to spread the Wahhabi doctrine around the globe.

Dr. Charles Fairbanks, director of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute at John Hopkins University, said the spread of Wahhabism has contributed greatly to the rise of militant Islamism around the world. “Not all Wahhabis are terrorists,” he said, “but all terrorists are, at least, influenced by Wahhabism.”

A Sufi Muslim takes on Wahhabism, To the controversial US-based Islamic scholar, Wahhabism is like an octopus whose tentacles are reaching everywhere By Mafoot Simon, Senior Writer

ALMOST from the moment he sits down, Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani goes on a sustained frontal attack on Wahhabism, the strain of Islamic thought that is currently and widely believed to be the ideological well-spring of Islamic extremism. If Wahhabism had been an object standing right before him, it would have been reduced to pulp by the end of the hour-long interview. But Shaykh Kabbani will tell you that it is not because he hates the Wahhabis. The chairman of the Islamic Supreme Council of America, a religious organisation based in Washington DC whose mission, among others, is to 'educate government officials on the religion, culture and history of the Muslim world', says he is worried because Wahhabism is like an an octopus. 'Its tentacles are reaching everywhere.'

Concerted efforts must now be made to stop them, he says. 'You have to hit the head; the head is the teachings, the teachings of radical Wahhabism,' says the 59-year-old.
Back in 1990, arriving for his first Friday prayers in an American mosque in Jersey City, he was shocked to hear Wahhabism being preached. 'What I heard there, I had never heard in my native Lebanon. I asked myself: Is Wahhabism active in America? So I started my research. Whichever mosque I went to, it was Wahhabi, Wahhabi, Wahhabi, Wahhabi.'

The pervasive presence of Wahhabi teachings in American mosques appalled him. With a long white beard that reaches the chest, a flowing robe and white headgear, Shaykh Kabbani can easily be mistaken for one of those Islamic scholars more at ease with Quranic verses than the chemical properties of oil or the anatomy of the human body. But the Lebanon-born scholar graduated with a bachelor's degree in chemistry from the American University of Beirut before continuing his medical studies in Belgium. Today, he also has a degree in Islamic law. Shaykh Kabbani is one of the organisers of the four-day International Conference of Islamic Scholars to be held in Jakarta from Dec 21 which features some world-renowned Muslim scholars.

Among them are Dr Husain Haqqani of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Dr Khaled M. Abou El Fadl of the University of California at Los Angeles School of Law, Dr Abdul Ghani Le Joyeux of the Muslim World League of France, and Dr Rahma Bourqia, president of the Universite Hassan II Mohammedia-Casablanca in Morocco. The conference is meant to provide a forum for Islamic leaders to discuss strategies, programmes and plans to elucidate a modern vision for civil society institutions in Muslim societies everywhere One highlight is the publication of 'A Declaration of Universal Human Rights In Islam'.

Shaykh Kabbani moved to the United States in 1990 as an emissary of his 'guru', Shaykh Muhammad Nazim al-Haqqani, the grand shaykh ('shaykh' is a Sufi mystical leader) of the Naqshbandi Order, a modern Sufi group, to make inroads into the US. Since then, he has opened scores of Sufi centres in the US and Canada. Sufism is generally believed to have grown out of early Islamic asceticism that began as a counterweight to the worldliness of the expanding Muslim community of the early Umayyad period (AD 661-749). There are different variants of Sufism but core beliefs include spirituality, acts of piety and a strong emphasis on prayer and meditation.

Hostility between Sufis and Wahhabis dates back to the very founding of Wahhabism itself in the 18th century when it emerged as the most famous and militant anti-Sufi movement in the Arabian peninsula. Wahhabis considered Sufism a degenerate form of Islam and urged a return to the 'fundamentals' of Islam, as opposed to the 'traditions' that had accrued over the centuries.

Today, Wahhabism is associated with the Saudi government, which funds many Wahhabi missionary activities overseas, including in the US. Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is also believed to be a Wahhabi. Shaykh Kabbani's fame in the US pre-dates the Sept 11, 2001 attacks, however. In 1999, during a forum organised by the US State Department, he charged that '80 per cent' of the mosques in the US were run by extremists. Following that claim, more than 100 Islamic centres and groups issued a statement condemning his remarks.

In 2002, on a visit to Malaysia, he raised an alarm when he revealed that a former Malaysian Cabinet minister had allegedly funded a Muslim organisation in the US which has possible links with extremist groups. He has not changed his view. More recently, he has been a guest at the White House Iftar (breaking of the Muslim fast) hosted by US President George W. Bush, and has met world leaders such as Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
He travels regularly to this region, Britain and elsewhere. He has written a number of books, the latest being The Approach Of Armageddon - An Islamic Perspective.

It has been described as an 'unprecedented work' and touted as a 'must read' for religious scholars and lay persons interested in broadening their understanding of centuries-old religious traditions pertaining to the Last Days. His other books include The Naqshbandi Sufi Way, Angels Unveiled, Encyclopaedia Of Islamic Doctrine (seven volumes), and Women Companions Of The Prophet Muhammad (with Dr L. Bakhtiar). His garb and forceful views on the Wahhabis notwithstanding, the jet-set Sufi is not without a sense of humour.
When told that I had requested the interview to be brought forward by an hour to 9.30am, he quipped: 'I was told you were coming at 7.30am, so I have been ready since 7.30am.'
Introduced to my colleague, photojournalist Aziz Hussin, as 'the great shaykh from the US', he countered: 'No, no. The small shaykh from the US.'

Whether great or small, the shaykh is quite controversial, something that he unabashedly admitted during the interview. He has his share of critics. In 2001, Professor John Voll of Georgetown University in Washington DC said that Shaykh Kabbani was overstating his case against Wahhabism. 'Wahhabism itself is subject to moderate and extreme strains,' said Prof Voll, adding: 'The Saudis have given millions to Harvard Law School. Does that make it a Wahhabi institution too?' But questions like this, however, have not stopped, and are not likely going to stop, the shaykh from slamming the Wahhabis.

Giving moderate Muslim speakers a platform

Qustion (Q) : What is the purpose of the International Conference of Islamic Scholars to be held in Jakarta?
Answer (A) : It is to establish, once and for all, the proper image of Islam and to empower moderate speakers or scholars to speak up.

Q : The conference flier here says that 'the moderates are struggling for access to the public square'. Why?
A : In my humble opinion, moderate scholars have no access to anything. The dominating voice today is the voice of the Wahhabi sect. They dominate everything: publishing, books, money. Everything is in their hands. If one moderate scholar speaks up, the Wahhabis will bring hundreds of speakers from their side to speak. That is why there is no public square for the moderates. We are trying to establish a structure for these moderates to stand up and it is a challenge. But we are trying.

Q : You say Wahhabism is the primary source of extremism.
A : Of course, Islam is peaceful in its history. Islam does not allow aggression.
But the Wahhabi sect spreads a radical ideology, financed by oil money. Today Wahhabism is everywhere, not just in Saudi Arabia. You go to any mosque, you will find literature from Saudi Arabia about Muhammad Ibn Abdul Wahhab (the founder of Wahhabism). You will find on the shelves only books by scholars from Saudi Arabia. You cannot find books by other scholars in these mosques.

Q : Are Muslims ready to say that the Saudis are behind this extremism?
A : Ask the 19 hijackers (who flew the planes in the suicide attacks on the United States in 2001, several of whom were Saudi-born), do not ask me. That will give you a clear answer.
Q : Is that one reason why moderates are not speaking up? Because they are not willing to say openly who is behind the extremism?
A : That is true in a sense...(But) they are also being threatened. They are afraid. No one will protect them.

Q : Who are these moderates?
A : I give you one example. Mohd Maliki (Muhammad Ibn Alawi Abbas Ibn Al Aziz Al Maliki, a scholar) from Mecca. He was a moderate and tried to stand up against the Wahhabis in Mecca and Medina. Around 1980, he was exiled because he wanted to debate (a fatwa issued by the Saudi religious authorities). After intervention from many Arab Muslims, he was allowed to return, but his movements were curbed. Recently, he died. But to allow his jenazah (funeral) prayers to be done in the Kaabah, they had to declare publicly that he had repented before he died.

Q : What about the moderates in the United States?
A : Most of the mosques in the US are influenced by Saudi teachings. Check the mosques, you'll find Saudi books, Saudi curriculum for the schools. If you speak against Wahhabism, your mosque will not get more funds. The people in the mosques have been brainwashed.

Q : The conference statement also says that 'the struggle for ideological primacy within Islam is a fight that only Muslims themselves can wage'. Is this the position of the conference organiser?
A : Muslims have to come together and discuss these differences and put an end to what is going on, because if the Muslims cannot do that, no one can do it.

Q : Do you see this as a clash of civilisations instead?
A : I do not see a clash of civilisations. Sept 11 caused a clash of civilisation. But I say the clash of civilisation is among Muslims themselves. Muslims are fighting each other; they are killing each other. There are no human rights in Islamic countries. People are thrown in prisons, beaten to death.

Q : One American Muslim writer said that this talk that only Muslims themselves can solve this problem is actually divisive. It is dividing the ummah (community).
A : The Muslim community is already divided. You are telling me there is unity among the Muslims? The Prophet said: 'My ummah will be divided into 73 different groups.' It already exists. It has existed since the time of the Prophet. Today, there is one hegemony in the Muslim world, the hegemony of the Wahhabi sect that makes all Muslims look bad. Maybe the writer you mention is getting oil money. Many writers get oil money.

Q : I do not mean to be rude, but the same could also be said of those who espouse a line similar to what comes out of Washington. That they are being paid by the CIA.
A : I am not receiving anything from the US government. I practise the Sufi tradition - the purification of the self; to be peaceful at all times and not to create confusion. Obey God, obey the Prophet, obey the authorities. We do not incite confusion. If we do not like something, we say it in a nice, diplomatic way. We debate. Today, there is no room for debate.

Q : How to stop the Wahhabis?
A : They have been around 40 years, so there is no quick fix. You have to plan for the next 40 years. But the first thing to do is stop sending your students to Saudi Arabia to study. Unfortunately, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, America, Arab countries are still doing that. Send your students to where there are established mainstream Muslim ways that are currently eliminated from Wahhabi books. Bring back the traditions - the (Indian) subcontinental traditions, the South-east Asian traditions. Teach them Sufism, spirituality. They have to be taught to be peace-loving, to integrate and be part of the bigger community.

Wahhabism tells you, do not be part of a kafir (disbeliever) community. (But) you have to integrate with the system wherever you are; as in Singapore, you have to be part of this unique system that you have. You cannot say I am a Muslim, he is a Chinese. Both of you are subjects, citizens of one system. Your religion is between you and Allah. That is Islam. I would also suggest humbly that you do not import scholars. They come from the Middle East and Africa and have a Middle Eastern and African mentality. My suggestion is to build in the universities an Islamic studies curriculum approved by modern, moderate scholars. These graduates can later teach others.

Q : Is this not something personal, the antagonism between your Sufism and Wahhabism?
A : This is the message we are sending if you want to change. We do not care much really. We live peacefully, live our own lives. But today, we see things are getting out of hand. Even the government has lost control. So we are giving a suggestion: To solve this problem, you have to go back to cultivating a love for the arts, the sciences, poetry, music - the essence of Sufism.

There is no poetry of love today. Only the poetry of vengeance... against the West, Europe, Muslims, Palestine. They are instilling in small kids the sense of hate; we have to change that hate to love. If you think this is a problem you can solve through diplomacy, in 70 years, they will conquer you and finish you completely. People think there is one (Osama) bin Laden. Who says there is one bin Laden? Every extremist will become a bin Laden.

Q : The way you put it, they seem like a cancer...
A : They are not a cancer. They are an octopus, reaching everywhere. Ends

During the reign of Sultan Salim III (1204-1222 AH) many tribulations took place. One was the tribulation of the Wahhabiyyah which started in the area of al-Hijaz(1) where they captured al-Haramayn(2), and prevented Muslims coming from ash-Sham(3) and Egypt from reaching their destination to perform Pilgrimage (Hajj). Another tribulation is that of the French who controlled Egypt from 1213 A.H. until 1216 A.H. Let us here speak briefly about the two adversities(4), because each was mentioned in detail in the books of history and in separate treatises.

Background On The Tribulations Of The Wahhabis

The fighting started between the Wahhabis and the Prince of Mecca, Mawlana Sharif Ghalib Ibn Bu Sa'id, who had been appointed by the honored Muslim Sultan as his ruling representative over the areas of al-Hijaz. This was in 1205 AH during the time of Sultan Salim III, the son of Sultan Mustafa III, the son of Ahmad. Previous to the outbreak of fighting, the Wahhabis began to build power and gain followers in their areas. As their territories expanded, their evil and harm increased They killed countless numbers of Muslims, legitimated confiscating their money and possessions, and captured their women. The founder of their wicked doctrine was Muhammad Ibn 'Abdul-Wahhab, who originated from eastern Arabia, from the tribe of Banu Tamim.

He lived a long life, about one-hundred years. He was born in 1111 AH and died in 1200 AH. His history was narrated as follows: Muhammad Ibn 'Abdul-Wahhab started as a student of knowledge in the city of the Prophet, sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam: Medina al-Munawwarah. Ibn 'Abdul-Wahhab's father was a good, pious man among the people of knowledge as was his brother, Shaykh Sulayman. His father, his brother, and his shaykhs (teachers of religion) had the foresight Ibn 'Abdul-Wahhab would innovate a great deal of deviation and misguidance, because of their observance of his sayings, actions, and inclinations concerning many issues. They used to reprimand him and warn people against him.

Some Of The Beliefs Of Ibn 'Abdul-Wahhab

What Ibn 'Abdul-Wahhab's father, brother, and shaykhs speculated about him came true-by the Will of Allah, Ta'ala. Ibn 'Abdul-Wahhab innovated deviant and misleading ways and beliefs and managed to allure some ignorant people to follow him. His deviant and misleading ways and beliefs disagreed with the sayings of the scholars of the Religion. His deviant beliefs led him to label the believers as blasphemers! He falsely claimed visiting the grave of the Prophet, sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam, and performing the tawassul(5) by him as shirk(6). Additionally, he falsely claimed visiting the graves of other prophets and righteous Muslims (awliya') and performing tawassul by them was shirk as well. He added to this by saying, "To call upon the Prophet, sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam, when performing tawassul by the Prophet is shirk." He passed the same judgment of shirk on the ones who call upon other prophets and righteous Muslims (awliya') in performing tawassul by them.

In an effort to give credibility to his innovations Ibn 'Abdul-Wahhab embellished his sayings by quotations which he selected from Islamic sources, i.e., quotations which are used as proofs for many issues but not the issues which Ibn 'Abdul-Wahhab was attempting to support. He brought false statements and tried to beautify them for the laymen until they followed him. He wrote treatises for them until they believed that most
of the People of Tawhid(7) were blasphemers.

Alliance With The Saudi Family

Moreover, Ibn 'Abdul-Wahhab called upon the princes of eastern Arabia and the people of ad-Dar'iyyah(8) to support him. They carried his doctrine and made this endeavor a means to strengthen and expand their kingdom. They worked together to suppress the Bedouins of the deserts until they overcame them and those Bedouins followed them and became foot-soldiers for them without pay. After that, these masses started to believe that whoever does not believe in what Ibn 'Abdul-Wahhab said is a blasphemer, and it is Islamically lawful (halal) to shed his blood and plunder his money.

The matter of Ibn 'Abdul-Wahhab started to evidence itself in 1143 A.H. and began spreading after 1150 A.H. Subsequently, the scholars--even his brother, Shaykh Sulayman and the rest of his shaykhs- authored many treatises to refute him. But Muhammad Ibn Su'ud, the Prince of ad-Dar'iyyah in eastern Arabia, supported him and worked to spread his ideology. Ibn Su'ud was from Banu Hanifah, the people of Musaylimah al-Kadhdhab(9). When Muhammad Ibn Su'ud died, his son 'Abdul-'Aziz Ibn Muhammad Ibn Su'ud took over the responsibility of fulfilling the vile task of spreading the Wahhabi beliefs.

Many of the shaykhs of Ibn 'Abdul-Wahhab in Medina used to say, "He will be misguided, and he will misguide those for whom Allah willed the misguidance." Things took place as per the speculation of the scholars. Ibn 'Abdul-Wahhab claimed his intention behind the madhhab he invented was "to purify the tawhid" and "repudiate the shirk." He also claimed people had been following the shirk for six-hundred years and he revived their Religion for them!!

The Methodology of Ibn 'Abdul-Wahhab

Ibn 'Abdul-Wahhab took the verses revealed to speak about the blasphemers and applied them to the Muslims. The following examples from the Qur'an illustrate this point. Allah, ta'ala, said in Surat al-Ahqaf, Ayah 5: Who is more astray than the one who performs supplication (du'a') to [worship] other than Allah; the one other than Allah he supplicates to will not answer his du'a'. Allah, ta'ala said in Surat Yunus, Ayah 106 :
Do not perform supplication (du'a') to [worship] other than Allah; the one other than Allah you supplicate to will not benefit you and will not harm you

The verses in the Qur'an similar to these ones are numerous. Muhammad Ibn 'Abdul-Wahhab gravely misinterpreted the previously cited verses and said: "The Muslim who asks help from the Prophet, sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam, other prophets, or the righteous people (salihun), or who calls or asks any of them for intercession is like those blasphemers mentioned in the Qur'an." According to the false claim of Ibn 'Abdul-Wahhab, the Muslims who do these things are blasphemers.

He also considered visiting the grave of Prophet Muhammad and the graves of other prophets and righteous Muslims for blessings as blasphemy. Allah revealed Ayah 3 of Surat az-Zumar in reference to the mushrikun: Those who worship the idols said: "We do not worship them except to achieve a higher status from Allah Ibn 'Abdul-Wahhab falsely stated: "Those who perform tawassul (asking Allah by the prophets, for example) are similar to those blasphemers mentioned in Surat az-Zumar, Ayah 3, who claim they do not worship the idols except to achieve a higher status from Allah." He said: "The blasphemers did not believe the idols create anything; they believed Allah is the Creator." He gave his version of proof from the Qur'an by citing Surat Luqman, Ayah 25 and Surat az-Zumar, Ayah 38, in which Allah said: If you ask them, `Who created the heavens and earth?' They will say, `Allah'. In Surat az-Zukhruf, Ayah 87, Allah said: If you ask them, `Who created them?' They will say,’Allah’. Ibn 'Abdul-Wahhab falsely concluded from these verses that the Muslims who perform tawassul are similar to those blasphemers.

The Scholars refute Ibn 'Abdul-Wahhab

In their writings to refute Ibn 'Abdul-Wahhab's sayings, the scholars said his deduction was false. The believers did not consider the prophets or the awliya' as gods and they did not deem them partners to Allah. Instead, they correctly believe the prophets and awliya' are good slaves and creations of Allah, and they do not deserve to be worshipped.

The blasphemers intended in these verses believed their idols deserved Godhood. They exalted them as one would exalt his Creator, even though they believed the idols did not create the heavens and the earth. The believers, on the other hand, do not believe the prophets or righteous Muslims (awliya') deserve to be worshipped, nor do they deserve to be attributed with Godhood, nor do they exalt them as one would exalt God. They believe these people are good slaves of Allah, His beloved ones whom He chose, and by their blessings (barakah) Allah grants His mercy to His creation. Hence, when the slaves of Allah seek the blessings (barakah) of the prophets and righteous Muslims (awliya') they are seeking these blessings as a mercy from Allah.

There are many proofs and examples from the Qur'an and Sunnah about this basic belief of the Muslims. Muslims believe Allah is the Creator, the One Who grants benefit and inflicts harm, and the only One Who deserves to be worshipped. Muslims believe that no one other than Allah has the power to affect the creation. The prophets and righteous people do not create anything. They do not possess the power to bestow benefit or inflict harm on others, but Allah is the One Who bestows the mercy upon the slaves by the righteous Muslims' blessings.

Hence, the belief of the blasphemers, i.e., the belief their idols deserve to be worshipped and have Godhood, is what makes them fall into blasphemy. This saying of the blasphemers, as previously cited in Surat az-Zumar, Ayah 3, was said in an effort to justify their belief when they were disproved and shown idols do not deserve to be worshipped.

How can Ibn 'Abdul-Wahhab and those who follow him find it permissible to equate the believers, who believed in tawhid, to those blasphemers, who believed in the Godhood of the idols? All the previously cited verses and the verses which are similar to them are specific to the blasphemers who associate partners with Allah--none of the believers are included.

Al-Bukhariyy narrated by the route of Ibn 'Umar, may Allah raise their ranks, that the Prophet, sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam, described the Khawarij as those who took the verses revealed about the blasphemers and attributed them to the believers! In the narration by the route of Ibn 'Umar the Prophet said: "What I fear most for my nation is a man who mis-explains the Qur'an and takes it out of context."

Proofs For Tawassul - The Permissibility of Asking Allah for things by some of His Creation. Refute Abd Wahhab the Wahabism

If performing tawassul had been blasphemy, then the believers, i.e., the Prophet, sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam, his Companions, and the Salaf and Khalaf of this nation would not have done it. Yet it is mentioned in the sahih hadith of the Prophet that the Prophet used to ask Allah by saying: "O Allah, I ask You by the status of those who ask You.(10) " Without doubt, this is tawassul. The Prophet, sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam, used to teach this supplication (du'a') to his Companions and order them to say it. This issue was expounded upon in different books and treatises refuting Ibn 'Abdul-Wahhab.

There is a hadith related by al-Hakim that mentions after Adam ate from the tree, he performed tawassul by our Prophet, sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam. He did that, because he saw the name of the Prophet written on the 'Arsh, Adam said: "O Allah, by the dignity of this son [Muhammad], forgive this father [Adam]."

It was also related by Ibn Hibban, that upon the death of Fatimah Bint Asad, may Allah raise her rank, the Prophet, sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam, with his own honorable hands, put her in her grave and said: "O Allah, forgive my mother(11), Fatimah Binti Asad, and widen her place by the status of Your Prophet and the prophets who came before me. You are the most Merciful."

There is a hadith classified as sahih(12), that a blind man asked the Prophet, sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam, to make a supplication (du'a') to Allah to return his sight. The Prophet ordered him to make ablution (wudu') and pray two rak'ahs and then say:
"O Allah, I ask You and direct myself to You by Your Prophet, Muhammad, the Prophet of Mercy. O Muhammad, I ask Allah by you to fulfill my need. O Allah, enable him to intercede for me."

The blind man did what the Prophet taught him to do(13) and Allah brought his sight back. Moreover, as related by at-Tabaraniyy, the tawassul made by the blind man was used by the Companions and Salaf after the death of the Prophet. 'Umar Ibn al-Khattab performed the tawassul by al-'Abbas (the uncle of the Prophet), may Allah reward their deeds, when he prayed the Salah of 'Istisqa'(14) with the people. There are other proofs mentioned in the books of the Islamic scholars but we will not recount them at length here.

The one who pursues the saying of the Companions and their followers will find a great deal of proof about the validity of calling the prophet by saying "O Muhammad" in his presence as well as in his absence and in his life as well as after his death. In fact, many texts include the phrase which means, "O Muhammad". Calling the name of the Prophet, sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam, is permissible. An example is the saying of the Companion, Bilal Ibn al-Harith, may Allah reward his deeds, when he went to the grave of the Prophet. He said: "O Messenger of Allah, ask Allah to send rain to your Nation." His saying contains this format(15).

Shaykh Muhammad Ibn Sulayman al-Kurdiyy(16) was among the authors who wrote refuting Ibn 'Abdul-Wahhab. He was Ibn 'Abdul-Wahhab's own shaykh. Among what he said is as follows:
O Ibn 'Abdul-Wahhab, I advise you, for the sake of Allah, ta'ala, to hold your tongue regarding the Muslims. If you hear from anyone who asks for help from other than Allah that one has the power to effect things without the Will of Allah, then teach him the right thing about this issue, and show him the proofs which state no one other than Allah brings things from non-existence into existence. The one who rejects that is blasphemous. You have no right to label the majority of the Muslims as blasphemers(17) while you are deviant from the majority of the Muslims.

In fact, it is more reasonable to consider the one who deviates from the majority of the Muslims as a blasphemer then to consider the Muslims as a nation as blasphemers--because the deviant one has followed a path other than the path of the believers. In Surat an-Nisa', Ayah 15, Allah said: Whomever contends with the Messenger after the right path was exposed to him and follows other than the way of the believers, Allah will leave him to whatever he followed and put him in Hell (Jahannam)].

The Permissibility Of Visiting The Grave Of The Prophet

Visiting the grave of the Prophet, sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam, was performed by the Companions and the Salaf and Khalaf who came after them. Many hadiths cite the benefit of this deed and the scholars of Islam have written books about this matter(18).

Calling On Someone Other Than Allah

Among of what was mentioned concerning calling on someone other than Allah, whether that one is present, absent, dead or alive, is the saying of the Prophet: "If the animal of anyone of you went out of control in the wilderness, then call: `O slaves of Allah, help me'", since there are slaves of Allah [i.e. the angels] who will respond to him.

There is another hadith related by al-Bazzar in which the Prophet said: " If one of you lost something or needs help while in an open land, then let him say: "O slaves of Allah, help me." Another narration says, "Rescue me, because Allah has created slaves whom you do not see." When traveling at nightfall the Prophet, sallallahu 'alyhi wa sallam, used to say:" O earth, my Lord and your Lord is Allah." When the Prophet visited the grave of Muslims, he used to say:"O people of the graves, peace be upon you."

In the Tashahhud in as-Salah the Muslim says: "O Prophet of Allah, may Allah protect you from infirmities, and have mercy and blessings on you." There is no harm in calling on and performing tawassul by someone unless one believes that someone other than Allah actually creates things. Hence, as long as one believes that only Allah creates them, there is no harm in performing tawassul. Likewise, attributing a certain doing to other than Allah does not harm unless one believes this doer actually creates. So once it is established the person does not believe the creating is for other than Allah then attributing a doing to other than Allah is understood in its proper context. When one says: "This medicine benefited me," or "This particular righteous Muslim benefited me," he is merely exposing the created reason of the benefit. These statements are also similar to when one says: "This food satisfied my hunger," or "This water quenched my thirst," or "This medicine cured me." When Muslims say such statements, they understand them in their proper context, i.e., food, water, and medicine are only reasons, and Allah is the Creator of their benefit.

The general proofs mentioned in this summary are enough to refute Ibn 'Abdul-Wahhab. The scholars of Islam have expounded on this issue in several treatises.

Footnote:
1. Al-Hijaz refers to the western part of Arabia which includes Mecca and Medina.
2. Al-Haramayn refers to Mecca and Medina.
3. Ash-Sham refers to the area that includes Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Palestine.
4. Only the first adversity will be presented in this booklet.
5. Tawassul is asking Allah for goodness by a prophet, righteous believer, etc.
6. Shirk refers to associating partners to Allah.
7. The People of Tawhid refers to the Muslims.
8. Ad-Dar'iyyah is a region north of the city of Riyad, Saudi Arabia.
9. Musaylimah al-Kadhdhab was a blasphemous man who claimed the status of prophethood for himself after the death of Prophet Muhammad. He was killed by the Muslims during the caliphate of Abu Bakr, may Allah raise his rank.
10. 10.Ibn Majah and others related this hadith and the-Hafidh, Ibn Hajar, deemed it a strong hadith
11. The Prophet called her `my mother' out of likening her to his real mother.
12. Sixteen hafidhs of hadith classified this hadith as sahih, including at-Tirmidhiyy, at-Tabaraniyy, al-Bayhaqiyy, as-Subkiyy, among others.
13. It is clear in the narrations of this hadith, the blind man was not in the session of the Prophet when he did as the Prophet ordered him.
14. Salah of 'Istisqa' refers to performing a specific prayer which includes making supplication for rain.
15. Al-Bayhaqiyy related this hadith and classified it as Sahih.
16. Shaykh Muhammad Ibn Sulaym al-Kurdiyy was the one who wrote al-Hashiyah on the explanation of Ibn Hajar to the text of Bafadl.
17. It is mentioned in a hadith it is easier for the devil to trick the lonely person who is away from other Muslims. The Prophet, sallallahu al 'alayhi wa sallam, while encouraging the Muslims to perform the prayers in congregation said:"Moreover, the wolf will eat the lonely lamb."
18. Among these hadiths is the one related by ad-Daraqutniyy that the Prophet said: "On the Day of Judgment, I will intercede for the one who visits my grave with the good intention."

Time has come for WAHABIS AHLE-HADIS (Salafi)/WAHABIS(Deobandis)SATAN O'SAMA BIN LADEN AND
SATAN SADDAM to pay price for killing Sunni-Sufi-Barelwi Muslims and Shia Muslims.

If we are really Muslims than we can not loves and follow Satan Abdul Wahhab Najdi who declared the (Sunni-Sufi-Barelwi-Muslims)Ahle Sunna Wa Jama'a as 'Kafirs'. He passed a ruling that it was lawful to kill men, women and children belonging to the Ahle
Sunna Wa Jama'a. Mullah belongs to the Deobandi school of thought and this is what one of the founding fathers of the Deobandi/Tableeghi movement had to say about the Wahhabis.
"Abdul Wahhab is known as a Wahhabi. His beliefs were excellent."

(Fatawa-e-Rashidia, Book 1,pp/111 by Deobandis Father Rashid Ahmed Gangoi).

Now when the founding father of the Deobandi/Tableeghi school of thought praises the Wahhabi beliefs, then surely do? he also condones the slaughter and rape of the Muslims by these very Wahhabis? Do he also condones the Bombing of the Holy Shrine of the Prophet(Sallalahu alayhi wa sallam)? Then, we the Sunni Muslims, would like to know, why the Deobandis/ Tableeghis object on being called Wahhabis, when their own leader has praised the Wahhabis for their 'excellent beliefs'?

Muslim's Prophet(Sallalahu alayhi wa sallam) never teach killing any innocent Muslims and Non-Muslims But Abdul Wahhab Najdi who is well known as a Wahhabi teach killing any innocent Muslims and Non-Muslims is fine and just do it why? People who love Satan Abdul Wahhab Najdi is known as a Wahhabi, they are a enemy of Islam and Muslims and Non-Muslims are thousand times better than them.

1. Wahhabism-Salafi(Deobandism-Tableeghi)say that it is Shirk to say, "Allah and His Rasool know best" as we are equating Rasoolullah's (sallal laahu alaihi wasallam) knowledge with Allah Ta'ala's Knowledge. They say that Rasoolullah's (sallal laahu alaihi
wasallam) knowledge is limited because verses like "Alif Laam Meem", "Yaseen", etc. are only known to Allah Ta'ala. They say that were not the Christians led astray and cursed because they did the same thing of equating Hazrat 'Isa (alaihis salaam) to Allah Ta'ala?

2. They say that all authoritative and reliable Kitaabs of Tafseer, Fiqh or Fatawa have the words "Wallaahu A' lamu" (And Allah Ta'ala knows best) and that nowhere will one find the words "Allah and His Rasool know best".

3. The Ahadith below will prove that it is indeed the Sunnah of the Sahabah Ikraam (radi Allahu anhum) to say: "Allah and his Rasool know best".

4. Not only is it the Sunnah of the Sahabah Ikraam to utter the above phrase, Rasoolullah (sallal laahu alaihi wasallam) never refuted this statement when he heard it. Therefore, this means that Rasoolullah (sallal laahu alaihi wasallam) approved the statement.

5. Hazrat Umar Ibn Khattab (radi Allahu anhu) said: One day, as we were sitting in the company of Allah's Messenger (sallal laahu alaihi wasallam) there appeared before us, all of a sudden, a man (dressed) in extremely white clothes with extremely black hair. There seemed to be no sign of fatigue caused by journey on him and none amongst us ever knew him. At last, he sat near the Prophet (sallal laahu alaihi wasallam). He placed his knees upon the Prophet's (sallal laahu alaihi wasallam) knees and placed his palms on his thighs and said: "O Muhammad, inform me about Islam".

He (the Holy Prophet) said: "Islam requires that you testify that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is His Messenger and, that you establish Prayer and pay Zakaah, observe Fast during the month of Ramadaan and perform Pilgrimage to the House (Ka'bah) if you have the means". He said: "You have told the truth". What was amazing about him was that he would ask a question and then he himself would testify it to be true. He said: "Inform me about Iman". He (the Holy Prophet) said: "You must affirm your faith in Allah, His Angels, His Books, His Messengers, in the Hereafter, and in the Divine Decree to good and evil". He said: "You have told the truth".

He asked again: "Inform me about Ihsaan". He (the Holy Prophet) said: "Ihsaan is that you worship Allah as if you are seeing Him, (perceive) that He is in fact Seeing you". He said: "Inform me about (the Last) Hour". He (the Holy Prophet) said: "The one who has been inquired about the Qiyamah does not know more than the one who is inquiring (it means you know just as myself)". He (the inquirer) said: "Tell me some of it's indications". He (the Holy Prophet) said: "Slave-girls will give birth to their mistress, and you find bare-footed, destitute, shepherds exulting in buildings (palaces)". Then he (the inquirer) made
his way, but I stayed with him (the Holy Prophet) for a long time. He then asked me: "Umar, do you know about this inquirer?" I said: "ALLAHO WA RASOOLO HU A'LAMU. Allah and His Messenger know best". He (the Holy Prophet) said: "He was Gabriel, he came to you to instruct you on your religion". (Sahih Muslim; Mishkaat)

6. Ibn Abbas (radi Allahu anhu) reported that a deputation of the tribe of Abdul Qais came to Allah's Messenger (sallal laahu alaihi wasallam). Allah's Messenger (sallal laahu alaihi wasallam) said: "Who are the people, or of whom is the deputation (constituted)". They said: "(The deputation) of Rabi'a". He (the Holy Prophet) said: "Welcome to the
people or the deputation that you have come to us without feeling any shame or sense of disgrace". They said: "Allah's Messenger, we do not find it possible for ourselves to come to you but in the sacred months

- (for) between us and you there is a tribe of unbelievers called Mudar. Give us a decisive command which we may tell to those behind us and which may entitle us to get into Paradise", and they also asked him about drinks. He commanded them to observe four things and prohibited them (from four things). He commanded them to affirm faith in Allah, the One. He said: "Do you know what it means to have faith in Allah?" They said: "ALLAHO WA RASOOLO HU A'LAMU , Allah and his Messenger know best". (Sahih Bukhari; Mishkaat)

7. Three points are derived from the above two Ahadith. They are:

7.1 It is indeed the Sunnah of the Sahaba Ikraam (radi Allahu anhum) to say, "Allah and his Rasool know best". Those who say, "Allah and his Rasool know best" are following in the footsteps of the Sahaba Ikraam (radi Allahu anhum) and are the true and real Sunnis.
Rasoolullah (sallal laahu alaihi wasallam) said: "Those who follow my footsteps and the footsteps of my Sahaba are the only Jama'at which will achievesalvation".

7.2 If it were Shirk to say "Allah and his Rasool know best" then the logic that follows would be that the whole Ummah of Rasoolullah (sallal laahu alaihi wasallam), including Rasoolullah (sallal laahu alaihi wasallam) himself, would become Mushriks (Allah forbid!). The reason for saying this is that Rasoolullah (sallal laahu alaihi wasallam) heard
this sentence from the Sahabah (radi Allahu anhum) and did not show any disagreement with them. To agree with Shirk is in itself Shirk. It would imply that if the Sahaba Ikraam (radi Allahu anhum) uttered this "Shirkia sentence" then all those people who learnt,
read, heard, and taught these Ahadith would have become Mushriks (Allah forbid!). It would also imply that even those who believed in the correctness of these Ahadith would also have become Mushriks.

8. We do not say that the knowledge of Rasoolullah (sallal laahu alaihi wasallam) is unlimited. Allah Ta'ala gave the knowledge of the entire creation to his beloved Rasool (sallal laahu alaihi wasallam). The entire creation is limited, therefore, it is
understood that the knowledge of creation is also limited. Hence, we agree that the Nabi's (sallal laahu alaihi wasallam) knowledge is limited to the entire creation. Allah's Knowledge is unlimited, thus there is no comparison to the limited knowledge of Nabi
(sallal laahu alaihi wasallam) and the unlimited Knowledge of Allah. Therefore, to say that the Ahle Sunnah Wal Jama'at proves that the knowledge of Rasoolullah (sallal laahu alaihi wasallam) is equal to the Knowledge of Allah Ta'ala, is a sheer lie and a
baseless accusation.

In the wake of a visit between 15 and 20 May to the Uzbek city of Bukhara (500 kilometres or 300 miles west of Tashkent), the "capital" of the Sufi Naqshbandi order in Central Asia, Keston has learnt that currently the Uzbek authorities are not simply not opposing the spread of the Naqshbandi order but, on the contrary, are doing all they can to support it. They are using Sufism as a distinctive counterweight to those Muslims who are independent of the authorities, the so-called Wahhabis (the name given in Central Asia
to Islamic fundamentalist groups, which often have little in common with the Islam that predominates in Saudi Arabia) and the international Islamic party Hizb-ut-Tahrir, which campaigns for the unification of Muslims throughout the world into a single caliphate.

Bukhara is held to be the most significant Muslim holy site in Central Asia. It was in this city that Bahauddin Naqshbandi, founder of the Naqshbandi order, one of the most influential Sufi orders, was born in the 14th century. Sufism is a mystical branch of Islam, rooted in the attempt to reach God through personal experience. The first Sufis are said to have been the ascetics who lived in Iraq and Syria at the end of the 8th century and the beginning of the 9th century, who strove to comprehend the "hidden" sense of the Koran's revelations, and who followed strictly the instructions of the Koran, held vigils, took vows, and observed additional fasts. The name of the movement is believed to derive from the Arabic word suf - meaning wool - as the Sufis wore cloaks made out of coarse wool.

From its origins in Bukhara, the Sufi Naqshbandi order (translated literally, an engraver of wooden stamps) now has followers in all the Muslim countries. During the war in the North Caucasus against Russian forces in the 19th century, it was members of the Naqshbandi order that made up the main part of the resistance movement. In 1940-42 an uprising against the Soviet authorities was also led by members of the Naqshbandi order. During the colonisation of Central Asia, Russian forces were also forced to confront not so much opposition from the local feudal lords, the state apparatus and the armies of local rulers, as resistance by members of the Sufi orders. Almost all the leaders of anti- Russian movements were Sufi sheikhs.

Now the official respect for Naqshbandi and his legacy is clear. In 1991 Bukhara's central street (called Lenin Street in the Soviet era) was renamed Bahauddin Naqshbandi street. In the Soviet era, Sheikh Naqshbandi's mausoleum (10 kilometres or 6 miles east of Bukhara) was used to store fertiliser. However, in 1991 the mausoleum was reopened and Naqshbandi's
grave became a place of mass pilgrimage. "In Soviet times it was even more dangerous to be a Sufi than simply to be a Muslim - the police got rid of such people right away," the imam- hatyb of the mosque next to Naqshbandi's mausoleum, Bobodzhon Rahmonov, told Keston
on 16 May. "But now we do not have any problems with the state. For example, the chairman of the state committee for religious affairs, Fazil Sobirov, belongs to the Naqshbandi order. Moreover, we are working with the state to show people how wrong the Wahhabi outlook is. We explain that the building of mausoleums in honour of holy Muslims - something the Wahhabis oppose -is not against Islam."

Teachers at Bukhara's Mir-Arab madrassah (the largest religious teaching establishment in Central Asia) expressed their full support for the state's policy towards believers. "'Sufism' is one way of reaching God. We have begun to teach Sufism as of this year as a separate subject," a teacher at the Mir-Arab madrassah, Abduhalil haji Niyazov, told Keston on 17 May. "Sixty hours in the year are allocated to the study of Sufism." In private conversations with Keston, students at the Mir-Arab madrassah reported that
students suspected of supporting Hizb-ut-Tahrir were immediately expelled, while to profess Sufism was completely safe.

Significantly, the government is also trying to attract foreign Muslim communities in order to raise the authority of the Naqshbandi order in Uzbekistan. It maintains close contacts with the Islamic Supreme Council of America, which represents followers of the Naqshbandi order in the United States. The number of ISCA members is relatively small (in the tens of thousands), but Uzbek propaganda represents the ISCA as being one of the
most influential Muslim organisations in the United States.

ISCA leaders have visited Uzbekistan and have met President Islam Karimov, while the
Uzbek government invited ISCA representatives to act as observers at the presidential elections in January 2000.

The ISCA remarks on its web-site www.Islamicsupremecouncil.org

"In January 2002, Islamic Supreme Council of America was honoured to have been the only American Muslim organisation to be invited to observe Uzbekistan's constitutional referendum. The invitation was a result of the ISCA's long-standing commitment to working with the moderate government of President Islam Karimov and supporting Uzbekistan's fight against religious extremism."

The government's support for followers of the Naqshbandi order may be explained by the fact that Sufism in Central Asia is quite closely linked with local, essentially pagan, customs. For example, one should only start with one's left foot when entering Naqshbandi's mausoleum. There are some shrivelled remains of a tree at the entrance to the mausoleum. According to folklore this tree grew when Bagauddin Naqshbandi was alive, and it is mystically linked with the founder of the order. It is said that if you walk three times around the shrivelled trunk of this tree, then your wish will be granted. The Uzbek government is primarily afraid of supporters of fundamentalist Islam, which has been imported from Arab countries and which calls for religion to be purified of regional and local customs. It therefore regards it as expedient that local Islam should be as distinct
as possible from the religion preached by Muslims abroad.

The Tashkent government's current support for Sufism is reminiscent of the experience of the KGB's work in the Russian North Caucasian region of Chechnya-Ingushetia in the Soviet era. In the 1930s, 40s and 50s, the NKVD (the KGB's predecessor) murdered all the influential sheikhs of the Naqshbandi order. Those who inherited the leadership in the Sufi orders in Chechnya (the heirs to the sheikhs), could survive only if they co-operated
with the NKVD and KGB. When the Chechens and Ingush returned from exile in 1957, the Kremlin placed these same followers of the Naqshbandi order in leading positions in the republic.

"The opinion spread among a significant section of religious authorities in the Naqshbandi order that it was necessary to co-operate with the atheist, communist authorities," one of the most influential theologians of Ingushetia, imam-hatyb of the Nasyr-Kurt mosque (a village in Ingushetia near the border with Chechnya) Salambek haji Ivloyev, told Keston in
November 1996. "In the Soviet era the KGB tried to govern Chechnya, where the majority of the population remained law-abiding Muslims, with the help of the Naqshbandi order. The top level of Chechen-Ingushetia society was drawn from the formal adherents of this order." He noted that Doku Zavgayev (chairman of the Supreme Soviet of Chechnya-Ingushetia in 1990 and head of the "pro-Russian" government in Chechnya in 1996) was a member of the
Naqshbandi order.

THE WAHABIS AHLE-HADIS(Salafi)/WAHABIS(Deobandis), OSAMA BIN LADEN AND HIS FOLLOWERS ARE FAILED BY THE WILL OF ALLAH TO MURDER SUNNI-BARELWI-MUSLIM PIR BHAI
Syed Pervez Musharraf Al-Hussaini.

If we are really Muslims than we can not loves and follow Satan Abdul Wahhab Najdi who declared the (Sunni-Sufi-Barelwi-Muslims)Ahle Sunna Wa Jama'a as 'Kafirs'. He passed a ruling that it was lawful to kill men, women and children belonging to the Ahle Sunna Wa Jama'a.

Mullah belongs to the Deobandi school of thought and this is what one of the founding fathers of the Deobandi/Tableeghi movement had to say about the Wahhabis. "Abdul Wahhab is known as a Wahhabi. His beliefs were excellent." (Fatawa-e-Rashidia, Book 1,pp/111 by Deobandis Father Rashid Ahmed Gangoi). Now when the founding father of the Deobandi / Tableeghi school of thought praises the Wahhabi beliefs, then surely do? he also condones the slaughter and rape of the Muslims by these very Wahhabis? Do he also condones the Bombing of the Holy Shrine of the Prophet(Sallalahu alayhi wa sallam)? Then, we the Sunni Muslims, would like to know, why the Deobandis/ Tableeghis object on being called Wahhabis, when their own leader has praised the Wahhabis for their 'excellent beliefs'?

Muslim's Prophet(Sallalahu alayhi wa sallam) never teach killing any innocent Muslims and Non-Muslims But Abdul Wahhab Najdi who is well known as a Wahhabi teach killing any innocent Muslims and Non-Muslims is fine and just do it why?

People who love Satan Abdul Wahhab Najdi is known as a Wahhabi, they are a enemy of Islam and Muslims and Non-Muslims are thousand times better than them.

Fitnatul Wahhabiyyah - The menace of Wahhabism By Mawlana Shaykhu-l-Islam Ahmad Zayni
Dahlan al-Makki ash-Shafi'i (Chief Mufti of Mecca al-Mukarramah). May Allah be pleased with him

Note: Whose creation is Deobandi and Tableeghi Jamaat in India ? Deobandi and Tableeghi Jamaat in India, is creation of the British. Why is Deobandi and Tableeghi Jamaat the creation of British ? When the British army invaded Mecca and Medina with the help of Saud family and Abdul Wahab Najdi, they decided that Abdul Wahab Najdi should look after the
religious affairs, while the Saud family will cater to state/political affairs. The huge and living example is that the name of Saud family has also been included in the name of Saudi Arabia. As soon as Abdul Wahab Najdi took over religious affairs, he passed the
ruling that, whoever says Ya Muhammad and believes in Haazir/omnipresent, will be charged as Mushrik and liable to death. Taking advantage of this ruling Abdul Wahab Najdi in that era massacred lakhs of Muslims who were believers of Ya Muhammad and Haazir, captured and
enslaved their women and children. This was an immoral act and opposed to all Islamic principles. For this reason even today the believers of Ya Muhammad and Haazir dislike Abdul Wahab Najdi.

India :
When the British alongwith Saud family terminated the Usmania Sultanate/ Ottoman Empire, they applied the same formula on India, but when they could not succeed to proclaim Najdi law/Nizam in India, they proclaimed the doctrine of Abdul Wahab Najdi by dividing Hanifis
into two parts. The British got Abdul Wahab Najdi's book Tahamai Tauheed translated by Maulana Ismail Dehlvi and named this translated version Taqveeyatool Imaan which is in actuality a source of agony, rather than a source of solace for the believers of Ya
Rasool. It should be remembered that Maulana Ismail Dehlvi's grandfather Hazrat Shah Wali-ullah was a believer of Ya Muhammad, and his father and uncle Abdul Aziz Dehlvi too was a believer of Ya Muhammad. Then they got a student of Maulana Ismail Dehlvi to set up a school in India, which was named Deobandi school. This student through whom this school was
started was Maulana Muhammad Qasim Nanatoi who is today called the founder of Deonandi school. He in turn had a student Maulana Rasheed Ahmed Gangohi, who in his book Fatwa-Rasheedia vol. 1 , pg.111 says that Abdul Wahab Najdi had excellent principles / faith / doctrine but had extremism in mind.

Now the question arises if a person massacres lakhs of people can he be excused on the pretext that he was an extremist by nature. Viewing this A'la Hazrat Ahmed Raza Khan Barelvi established Barelvi school. Deobandis were puppets in the hands of the British,
the living example of which is that in the war of 1857 Deobandis did not support Bahadur Shah Zafar on the pretext that they will not support bid'atis/innovators. The believers of Ya Muhammad hail back from 1400 years, be they Sunni or Shiite, they are still prevailing. History is witness to the fact that such people who are non-believers of Ya Muhammad
have risen from the past 250 years only. In this way, British have played a big role in detrimenting the Muslims. It is exemplary that whatever designs/ulterior motives the west had against the east, the same designs counteracted/ counterfired on them. The plant sowed by the west has grown up to be a tree with thorns pricking the west so much so that now
they have been reduced to cut this tree that they nurtured. Time magazine of 15 Sep. 2003 on pg. 25, 32 writes that Wahabism is a toxic faith. This article is along with photographs

The British Christians used their agent Hamfire. By plan they proved him Muslim, named him Abdul Aziz and befriended him with Abdul Wahab Najdi. Another man, a Jew Rabbi, was named Abdul Karim and he became the right hand of Abdul Wahab Najdi. Abdul Wahab Najdi was tied into two contract marriages, first with a Christian by the name of Safia. The second wife was a Jew called Aasia. These two women lured him into drinking. Abdul Wahab Najdi wrote with them a book Tahamai Tauheed. This book was written entirely in contradiction to the believers of Ya Muhammad. Even Abdul Wahab Najdi's father and brother who were believers of Ya Muhammad rejected this book.

During the reign of Ottoman Empire/ Usmania Caliphate, Hanifi law was proclaimed in Mecca and Medina. Then with the help of the Britsih, Abdul Wahab Najdi and Saud family eradicated / nullified Hanifi law and established Najdi law. One question arises, can it be acceptable to us Hanifis that after demolishing our law/ Nizam, Najdi law/Nizam was proclaimed in Mecca and Medina. But Why ? For the purpose of reference following is the list of few books in which their cards have been opened-!!!!!.

( Confession of British Spy ) Written by Hamfire
http://alumnigayonguia.tripod.com/artikel/SPY1.htm
Two faces of Islam Written by Stephen Schwartz
http://fazli-group.freeyellow.com/TheTwoFacesOfIslam.html

The Pseudo Salafi

Someone's playing your song...laa ilaha ila Llah

The past meets the present in a conflict of ways mass delusion fosters puritanical ways
the orthodox joy in retreat and unknown tunnel vision substitutes for singing that song
big oil fuels the dispersal of "grace" harsh look judgment call no smile on the face
limited access to the things you should read i don't want to threaten your low self-esteem

Hey hey hey hey neo-salafis tell me what it is that you do sitting around calling brothers kafr don't you know that you're courting your doom, hey heyhey neo-salafis who is it that you hate oppressing all the sisters and covering their lives up and telling them it
is their fate. they don't realize that they've bit the wrong cake saying that the sufi shaykhs are nothing but fake confusing lust for power they project onto them their own deep resentments and involvement with sin.

feeding bomb merchants with their penchant for hate and then think they're the ones with a clean slate in a conflict where none should exist political substitutes for lives filled with bliss. hey hey hey hey neo-salafis tell me what it is that you do sitting around calling brothers kafr don't you know that you're courting your doom

hey hey hey hey neo-salafis who is it that you hate oppressing all the sisters and covering their lives up and telling them it is their fate. well it ain't!

They are namely Sipah-e-Sahaba, Lashkar-e-Jhangavi and now a days Millet-i-Islamia under the leadership of Satan Azam Tariq. They were involved in the target shootings and murders of Sufi Muslims (Barelwi Muslims) doctors and tens of intellectuals including Barelwi Muslims Famous Leader in Islamic Republic of Pakistan Hazrat Maulana Salim Qadri Shaheed, the chief of the Sunni Tehrik and his six year old son Bilal Raza Shaheed. They were also involved in many massacres of innocent people inside the Shiite mosques in Pakistan. Because of their Saudi link. Now a days Afghan Taliban and their Wahhabis and Deobandis so called Muslims who teach lawful to kill men, women and children mostly are convicted and caught in the whole world.

For more information kindly read famous Islamic book known as Jaa-ul-Haq's pages on our current website's hot links from page number 9 to page number 17 Subject: Wahhabism =(Salafism)and from page number 424 to page number 432 Subject: Deobandism = (Wahhabism).

Ahl-e-Sunnat wal-Jama'at - Sunni Muslims

The Ahl-e-Sunnat wal-Jama'at belongs to the Hanafi School of thought and are referred to as Barelwi. The word `Hanafi' comes from the name of a great scholar of Islam, Imam Abu Haneefa. The name `Barelwi' is taken from the town where Imam Ahman Raza Khan lived and also from the Islamic University at Braeilly, established by Imam Khan. Ahmad Raza Khan was a great scholar and a Sufi who defended the way in which Ahl-e-Sunnat wal-Jama'at used elaborate ritual and great devotion to the Prophet Muhammad. Barelwi Muslims include the veneration of saints, the visiting of shrines and the celebration of important religious anniversaries in the practice of their religion.

Wahhabi so called Muslims and Deobandi so called Muslims In Views Of Barelwi Momin Muslims: Barelwi School Of Thought :

Maulana Ahmad Raza Khan Barelvi, founder of Barelvi school of thought among the Sunni Muslims of Indo-Pakistan sub-continent has declared in his fatwa (1320 h) that Wahhabi and Deobandi are kafirs and enemy of Islam. Mufti Ahmad Yar Khan in his book "Jaa-Ul-Haq" also proved that Wahhabi and Deobandi are kafirs and enemy of Islam. Please always remember that Deobandis, who just show to follow the Hanafi school,who accept only hadith under Imam Hanbal and Famous killer of Muslims known as Abdul Wahab.People who follow Abdul Wahab teachings are known as Wahhabis.

The Deobandis are one of the groups of so called Muslims. This group is connected to and named after the University of Deoband – Dar al-Uloom – in India founded by Muhammad Qaasim al-Nanatuwi. Deobandis are so called followers the of Imaam Abu Haneefah with regard to fiqh and really beliefs in Mohammed Ibn Abdul Wahhab Najdi declared the Ahle Sunna Muslims as 'Kafirs'. He passed a ruling that it was lawful to kill men, women and children belonging to the Muslims. In fact, it is recorded in the books of history, that, the Wahhabis killed over 100,000 thousand Muslim men and enslaved the women and children.Wahhabis came into power by torturing and killing Muslims in Mecca and Medina. Now are you ready vote for real Islam (Sufism and Barelwism) who teach path of Love or you are ready to vote for Afghan Taliban and their Wahhabis and Deobandis so called Muslims who teach lawful to kill men, women and children.

Afghan Taliban and their Wahhabis and Deobandis so called Muslims are the real enemy for image of Islam and the real problem in this whole World. An easy way to detect Wahhabi/"Salafi" literature is to look in the books/pamphlets and search for where the information is printed. Such literature will have King Fahd's name stamped on it or come from "Saudi" Arabia (or any other Gulf nations supporting the Saud regime).Keep in mind...

Nothing good has ever came from Najd!

These Shayateen (Satan)first called themselves Wahhabiyya, but after numerous fatawa were passed about them, they soon changed their name to Salafiyya. Notice the exact traits the Wahhabi/Salafi's have of the Khawarij: Only Hadiths which their "scholars" authenticate are "authentic." They feel they are the only ones who are practicing Islam correctly. Anyone who is not a "salafi"/Wahhabi is a Mushrik. They dress this up by calling those non-Najdi's as being "Sufi's." They won't hesitate to declare the blood of a Muslim as legal. They will never label a Non-Muslim, etc. as being a Mushrik, but will call a Muslim a Mushrik.

They only fight against Muslims.

They absolutely hate Ahlul-Bayt! You'll never see one book where they advocate sincerely love for the Ahl al-Bayt. They try to dress up their hatred of Ahlul-Bayt by saying: "We like Ahlul-Bayt, but we don't worship them." Keep in mind that the Khawarij declared the blood of Ahlul-Bayt at the time of Mawlana Ali bin Abi Taleb (Radhi Allahu Anhu) to be legal as well as his own blood. Just look at their history as to how they slaughtered COUNTLESS Hashimiyya in Ta'if, Yemen, and Syria!

They declare any Muslim who says he loves Sayyidina Rasulullah (Sallallahu alayhi wa Sallam) as being a Mushrik. The Khawarij made a big fuss over Salaah. The "Salafiyya" do the same. The Khawarij hated Al-Imam al-A'zam Abi Hanifah (Radhi Allahu anhu). The "Salafiyya": Likewise. And there is MANY, MANY more!!! and you'll see them on this site, insha-Allah. Ahl - e sunnah wal jamaa means that Muslims [Sufi Muslims (Barelwi Muslims) in the whole World] who follow Prophet Mohammed [peace be upon him] teaching.

Deobandism (Wahhabism) are the real enemy of Sufism (Barelwism) Islam in whole World and so called Sunni Muslims who are Satan Saudi link Al-Qaida who claims the terror network funded Satan Afghan Taliban and their Satan Wahhabis [Satan Salafi] and Satan Deobandis who follow Satan Ibn Abdul Wahhab Najdi teaching terror who declared the Ahle Sunna Muslims as 'Kafirs'. He passed a ruling that it was lawful to kill men, women and children belonging to the Muslims. If any one of us call Saudi sponsored Wahabi [Deobandi] {salafi} organizations a Muslims than our brothers will be not known as Shaheed.

Time has come for Saudi sponsored Wahabi [Deobandi] {salafi} organizations who are killing Muslims and Non-Muslims to better pay price soon by handover them self to Pakistani Govt otherwise USA Govt will turn them history any way soon. Amen

Wahabi [Deobandi] {Salafi} Organizations So Called Muslims TO BE AVOIDED.
A'la Hazrat Imam Ahmad Raza Khan Barelwi (radi Allahuanhu) has identified Wahabi [Deobandi] {salafi} organizations Cults which he said have Shaitaan as their Murshid. Muslims should avoid such groups, as taking guidance from them will invite the Wrath of Allah Ta'ala. The Cults identified by A'la Hazrat (radi Allahu anhu) are: Those who believe in the Book "Taqwi'atul Imaan" by Ismail Dehlawi and have turned their backs on the Quran and the Hadith.

According to their principles and beliefs contained in the afore-mentioned text, even Allah and His Rasool (sallal laahu alaihi wasallam) are Mushriks! The text "Taqwi'atul Imaan" is the source text and root of Wahabi [Deobandi] {Salafi}. Worst than all those are the Deobandis who have rationalized Kufriah teachings of Gangohi, Nanotwi and Thanwi, etc, and colouring it in as an Islamic context. They have transgressed to such an extent that they have accepted insults of Allah Ta'ala and the beloved Rasool (sallal laahu alaihi wasallam).

Wahabi[Deobandi]{Salafi} So Called Muslims SOME FALSE BELIEFS

ANSWERED.
To think according to principle, to possess true faith and believe and accept the true Commands of Islam is known as "Aqeeda". It is also understood as one's intention, concept and path that one follows. It must also be understood that the basis of one's action is one's Imaan and that the basis of one's Imaan is one's Aqeeda. If one's Aqeeda is corrupt, then one's Imaan is improper and if one's Imaan is not proper, then his Amaal (actions) are useless. In other words, Aqeeda is the soul, Imaan is the body and Amal is the garb.

To have good and strong Imaan, one must have the proper Aqeeda. It is for this reason that we quote a few un-Islamic beliefs together with the proper Islamic answers, so that we may, after reading about them, repent from any false and corrupt beliefs that we may hold and, thereafter, hold firmly to the proper Islamic beliefs. To hold improper per Aqeeda leads to Kufr, whereas proper Aqeeda is strength for Imaan. The un-Islamic beliefs which we have quoted below are quotations from Wahabi[Deobandi]{Salafi} So Called Muslims who possess such beliefs and by writing them in this book, we have no intention of Kufr.

PROPER BELIEF: Lies is a defect which is not worthy of the Zaat of Almighty Allah and is totally Muhaal(Impossible) for Almighty Allah. Allah is free from all shortages and defects thus making lies Muhaal for Almighty Allah.

FALSE BELIEF 2:To say that Allah is free from place,space, direction and time, etc. is to be misled.("Izaahul Haq" by Ismaeel Dehlwi)

PROPER BELIEF: Time and space have been created and will be eventually destroyed. Almighty Allah is Qadeem(Always Is and Always Will Be). If one accepts Allah to be in a fixed place and in a fixed time zone, then one will have to accept, Ma'az-Allah, that Allah is a creation and can be destroyed, whereas it is well known that, that which is Haadith (non-Eternal) and can be destroyed can never be Allah. The Being of Allah is Eternal and anything that is non-Eternal cannot be Allah. It is, thus, necessary to accept Almighty Allah to be free from time and place.

FALSE BELIEF 3:The Prophet (sallal laahu alaihi wasallam) had died and is mixed in the sand. ("Taqweeyat-ul Imaan" by Ismaeel Dehlwi)
PROPER BELIEF: It has been stated in the Hadith: "Verily, Almighty Allah has made it Haraam upon the earth to eat the bodies of the Ambiya". It has also been stated that Ambiya are alive and are blessed with Sustenance from Almighty Allah.

FALSE BELIEF 4: Every creation, no matter how big or small, is equivalent to a cobbler before Allah. ("Taqweeyat-ul Imaan" by Ismaeel Dehlwi)
PROPER BELIEF: The Holy Prophet Muhammad (sallal laahualaihi wasallam) is the most beloved Nabi of Almighty Allah. Almighty Allah took Qasm (Oath) even on the city of the Prophet (sallal laahu alaihi wasallam). He is the greatest of the creations of Almighty Allah.His
every word is accepted in the Court of Allah. He is a perfection in the Attributes of Almighty Allah and Allah has not created any unique being besides Sayyiduna Rasoolullah (sallal laahu alaihi wasallam).

FALSE BELIEF 5: Ambiya are not totally free from lies.To say that it is not possible for Ambiya to lie or to say that they are totally sinless is false.("Tasfiyatul Aqaa'id" by Qasim Nanothwi Founder Of Deoband University In India)
PROPER BELIEF: Ambiya and Malaa'ikah are Masoom (Sinless). It is Muhaal for them to commit sin. Committing a sin is not a quality of Ambiya. Ambiya are free from all small and big sins and all defects even before and after their Nubuwat.

PROPER BELIEF: An ordinary Muslim is not equal to a practising Muslim. A practising Muslim can never be equal to a non-Aalim, who is not equal to an Aalim. An Aalim is never equal to a Wali, a Wali can never be equal to a Tabbe Taabi'ee. A Tabbe Taabi'ee can never be equal to a Taabi'ee. A Taabi'ee can never be equal to a Sahaba. A Sahaba can never be equal to the Khulafa-e-Arbaa. None from the Khulafa-e-Arbaa can be equal to Sayyiduna Abu Bakr Siddique. He in turn can never be equal to a Nabi. No Nabi can be equal in any way to the King of Prophets, Muhammad Mustapha (sallallaahu alaihi wasallam). How then can a Ummah supercede Nabi Muhammad (sallal laahu alaihi wasallam) in good deeds? Ma'az-Allah!

FALSE BELIEF 7: To think of an ox and donkey in Salaah is permissible, but to think of the Prophet (sallallaahu alaihi wasallam) in Salaah is Shirk(Polytheism). ("Seerate Mustaqeem" by Ismaeel Dehlwi)

PROPER BELIEF: For a Muslim to perform any Ibaadat accepting that it is a noble action of Rasoolullah (sallal laahu alaihi wasallam) is the true sense of Ibaadat. If one reads Namaaz thinking of it as the Sunnah of the Prophet (sallal laahu alaihi wasallam),then, without doubt, one will think of the Prophet(sallal laahu alaihi wasallam). This belief creates in the mind of the performer the thought of the Holy Prophet (sallal laahu alaihi wasallam). Not only is the thought of the Prophet in Namaaz permissible, it is also the demand of Shari'ah that one must remember the Holy Prophet (salall laahu alaihi wasallam) at the time of Tashahud. According to the Fuqaha (Jurists) it is Waajib to believe that the Prophet (sallal laahualaihi wasallam) is observing you and that he is aware of your actions.

FALSE BELIEF 8: Any person who says the Nabi to be Haazir and Naazir is a Kaafir. ("Jawaahirul Quraan" by Ghulaamullah Khan)
PROPER BELIEF: Until and unless we do not accept Rasoolullah (sallal laahu alaihi wasallam) as being Haazir and Naazir, the concept of Risaalat will be incomplete. Our Prophet (sallal laahu alaihi wasallam) is Shaahid, Mubashir and Nazeer.

PROPER BELIEF: The Holy Quran has commanded us that the Prophet (sallal laahu alaihi wasallam) cannot be regarded as the father of anyone of you. How then can he be regarded as the elder brother? Then, to call him elder brother is disrespect and against of Quranic command. We are the Ummati, he is the Nabi. We are sinners, he is the Masoom most pure. We are believers, he is the source of Imaan. The difference here is enormous. It must be understood, that if the husband takes his wife as his mother, then his Nikah will be nullified. Likewise, if one takes the Prophet (sallallaahu alaihi wasallam) as the elder brother, then one's Imaan will be nullified.

PROPER BELIEF: The respect and reverence of the Prophet (sallal laahu alaihi wasallam) is not only waajib, but is an obligation upon every Muslim. Unless a person does not love the Prophet (sallal laahualaihi wasallam) more than anyone and anything in the world, his Imaan will not be perfected. The love of the Prophet (sallal laahu alaihi wasallam) is the first condition of Imaan.

FALSE BELIEF 11: The grave of the Prophet (sallal laahu alaihi wasallam) is an idol and to respect it is Kufr and Shirk. ("Ad Durrun Nadheed" by Qazi Shaukani)
PROPER BELIEF: Roza-e-Anwar more exalted than Jannat. The Qabr-e-Anwar is a sign of Imaan and Taqwa.

PROPER BELIEF: Bukhari and Muslim narrate on the authority of Hazrat Uthman bin Haneef (radi Allahu anhu) that a Sahabi who was blind by birth was once taught a special Du'a by the Holy Prophet (sallallaahu alaihi wasallam), which he was to recite after every Salaah. The Du'a is as follows: "O Allah, I ask from you, and turn towards you through the Wasila of Your Prophet Muhammad (sallal laahu alaihi wasallam), who is indeed a prophet of mercy. O Muhammad (sallallaahu alaihi wasallam)! with your Wasila, I turn towards Allah for my need so that it may be bestowed.O Allah, accept the Prophet's intercession for me". To say "Ya Nabi" and call to the Holy Prophet (sallallaahu alaihi wasallam), and to send salutations upon him, is the Sunnah of Almighty Allah, the Angels, the Prophets and the Sahaaba-e-Kiraam. Almighty Allah has commanded us to send salutations upon the Prophet (sallal laahu alaihi wasallam) in abundance. To send Durood at least once in one's life is Fard and in Namaaz it is Waajib. It is also Waajib to send salutations out of Namaaz, for the fist time the name of the Prophet is mentioned. Even if the name is mentioned continuously, then to send salutations is Sunnah.

FALSE BELIEF 13: To ask assistance from the Prophet(sallal laahu alaihi wasallam) is the work of Shaitaan and Shirk. ("Kashfush Shubhaat" by Abdul Wahab Najdi; "Taqweeyatul Imaan" by Ismaeel Dehlwi)

PROPER BELIEF: "Ya Rasoolallahi Unzur Haalana, Ya Habeeballahi Isma Qaalana, Innani fir Bahri Hammim Mughriqun, Khuz Yaddi Sahhil lanaa Ishkaalana", has been the Wazeefa of the great predecessors and is accepted as a means of asking from the Prophet (sallallaahu alaihi wasallam). To seek assistance from the Prophet (salall laahu alaihi wasallam) and seek Wasila of Awliya and Saaliheen is permissable.

FALSE BELIEF 14: To use the Ambiya, Awliya and Malaa'ikah as a means of Wasila Mediation). ("Tohfa-e-Wahaabiya" by Ismaeel Dehlwi)

PROPER BELIEF: We did not enter this world without means, and we will not leave this world without means.With the exception of the verse of the Quran commanding mediation, the following verses of Sheikh Bouseeri and Sheikh Saadi (radi Allahu anhuma) are always in the Du'as of Muslims: "Ya Rabbi bil Mustapha Baligh Maqasidana, Waghfirlana Ma Madaa Ya Waasi al Karami", and "Ilahi bahaqe bani Fathima, ke Barqaul Imaan Qunni Khatima, Agar Daawatam rad Kunni War Qabool, Manno Dast Damaane Aale Rasool".

FALSE BELIEF 15: Anyone who accepts the Prophet (sallal laahu alaihi wasallam) to be an intercessor for him on the Day of Qiyamah, is a Mushrik equal to Abu Jahl. ("Taqweeyatul Imaan")
PROPER BELIEF: When the intercession of a Hafizul Quran, according to the Hadith Shareef, and of an Aalim ba Amal is accepted, then why not that of Rasoolullah (sallal laahu alaihi wasallam)? On the Day of Qiyamah, the doors of intercession will be opened by none other than the Prophet (sallal laahu alaihi wasallam). It is also very rewarding to recite Durood-e-Taaj.

FALSE BELIEF 16: "Rahmatul Lil Alameen" (Mercy unto the Worlds) is not a special title of the Prophet(sallal laahu alaihi wasallam), but the Ummati are also "Rahmatul Lil Alameen". ("Fatawa Rasheedia")
PROPER BELIEF: "Rahmatul Lil Alameen" is the unique quality of Rasoolullah (sallal laahu alaihi wasallam) as stated in the Holy Quran.

FALSE BELIEF 17: To say that if Allah and His Rasool wills, then only will a certain thing happen, is Shirk.
PROPER BELIEF: That which Rasoolullah (sallal laahualaihi wasallam) wants, is what Allah wills. Almighty Allah will not will anything without the pleasure of the Prophet (sallal laahu alaihi wasallam).

FALSE BELIEF 18: Those persons whose names are "Muhammad" or "Ali" have no control over anything. ("Taqweeyatul Imaan")
PROPER BELIEF: Almighty Allah has blessed the Prophet(sallal laahu alaihi wasallam) with the keys to the treasures of both the worlds and Hazrat Ali's (radi Allahu anhu) name is the means of assistance in problems, why then can they not have any control?

FALSE BELIEF 20: The knowledge of the Prophet is like children and animals. The knowledge of Shaitaan is more than the Prophet. To say that the Prophet possessed 'Ilm-e-Ghayb or Knowledge of the Unseen, is Shirk. ("Hifzul Imaan" by Ashraf Ali Thanwi; "Barahine
Qaatia"; "Fatawa Rasheedia")
PROPER BELIEF: The meaning of the word "Nabi" alone is "one who knows and shows the Unseen". What position does the knowledge of an ordinary person hold in front of that of the Prophet (sallal laahu alaihi wasallam)? It is even less than a drop in front of an ocean or a grain of dust compared to all the sand in the world. The Prophet (sallal laahu alaihi wasallam) has been blessed with all the knowledge by Almighty Allah.

FALSE BELIEF 21: If Allah wills, then he may create a million Muhammads. ("Taqweeyatul Imaan") A Prophet can even come after Muhammad (sallal laahu alaihi wasallam). ("Tahzeerun Naas" By Founder Of Deoband University In India)

PROPER BELIEF: The doors of Prophethood have been sealed. Muhammad (sallal laahu alaihi wasallam) is the Seal of Prophethood. The Prophet also said that no Prophet shall come after him. Any person who claims Nabuwat after the Prophet (sallal laahu alaihi wasallam) is a Liar, Dajjal Kazaab and a Shaitaan.

FALSE BELIEF 22: To commemorate the Meelad is like commemorating the function of the Hindu deity. ("Baharine Qaatia" by Khaleel Ambethwi)
PROPER BELIEF: Meelad is a means of gaining blessings and closeness to Almighty Allah. It is the practice of all the great predecessors. Many sources of Shari'ah are available to prove it's authencity.

FALSE BELIEF 23: The illusion of illusionists are greater than the Miracle of Prophets. ("Mansab-e-Imaamat")
PROPER BELIEF: The Miracles of Prophets are to show proof of their Prophethood and it is that which is from Allah, whereas the illusions of illusionists are from Shaitaan.

FALSE BELIEF 24: Anyone who says the Sahaba to be Kaafirs is not out of the Sunnah Jamaat. ("Fatawa Rasheedia")
PROPER BELIEF: By one calling an ordinary Muslim a Kaafir, he himself becomes a Kaafir. How then can those who call the Sahaba Kaafirs not be Kaafirs?

FALSE BELIEF 25: To call oneself "Qaaderi", "Chishti", "Naqshabandi", etc. is Bid'at and words of Kufr. ("Tazkeerul Ikhwaan")
PROPER BELIEF: To call oneself by these titles are totally allowed and is a means of recognition of ones spiritual order. Examples of these are: Siddiqi, Alawi, Uthmaani, Farooqi, Hanafi Shafa'i, etc.

FALSE BELIEF 26: To put lights, carpets, to give water and food, or arrange Wudhu water at the Mazaar of Awliyah Allah are Shirk.
PROPER BELIEF: If carry out all the above mentioned practices at other places are permissible, then it should be a means of blessing to do so at the Darbaar of Wali where there are a gathering of Muslims.

FALSE BELIEF 27: To eat and drink the Tabarukaat (Niyaz In The Name Of Allah) of the Saints causes the heart to die(spiritually). ("Fatawa Rasheedia")
PROPER BELIEF: Eating the Niyaz of the Awliya brightens the heart and one's life and is a means of great blessing.

FALSE BELIEF 28: To call the Prophet "Shafi'ul Muznibeen", to recite Khatam, to imagine the blessed face and the Tomb of Rasoolullah (sallal laahu alaihi wasallam), to think that he has authority - all these qualities, even with the granting of Allah Ta'ala - is all Shirk, so much like the Shirk of Abu Jahl.(Kitaabut-Tauheed by Ibne Abdul Wahab Najdi)
PROPER BELIEF: According to authentic sources of Islamic Shari'ah, to belief that Rasoolullah (sallallaahu alaihi wasallam) is interceder, mercy, authority, helpful, and to imagine his blessed face and Tomb with respect, is regarded as a great and rewarding action. To recite Khatam Shareef is also permissable and rewarding as well. A person who denies this, his belief is like Abu Jahl.

Note: To believe all these above mentioned false "Islamic" beliefs makes a person a hypocrite, Tablighi, Deobandi, Maudoodi, Ahle Quran (People of Quran), etc. which are totally out of Islam. Any person who falsely claims to be the true Mahdi is misguided and a Faasiq. Any person who says that Almighty Allah can lie, that the Prophet's (sallal laahu alaihi wasallam) knowledge are like those of animals, that the Prophet Muhammad (sallallaahu alaihi wasallam) is not the Final Messenger,and the Prophet's knowledge is less than Shaitaan, etc. is a KAAFIR (totally out of the folds of Islam). We should not perform Salaah or associate with such persons as their companionship is detrimental to our Imaan.

Now a days one of the biggest and fastest-growing of world religions, Islam in the post-Sept. 11 world attracts more attention than ever. Its external observers tend to be either lumpers or splitters. Many lumpers regard the Muslim experience monolithically — often in negative,talk-radio style as the single-minded source of virulent terrorism. This column is not in praise of lumpers. Most splitters differentiate along two axes. A first distinction deals with the place of Islam in human affairs. On one extreme is Islamism (such as practiced by the Afghan Taliban and their Wahhabi and Deobandi mentors) which makes Islam the obligatory basis of all activity and recognizes no separation between mosque and state — indeed, condemns as sacrilegious the Western concept of nation-state. At the other pole is Muslim Momins which relegates Islam to private belief and, as in modern Turkey and Pakistan etc, guards against any expansion of religious role. Along the spectrum lie infinite gradations, such as the "traditional" Islam of pre-Taliban and pre-communist Afghanistan: present but not determinate in politics, culturally pervasive but in a manner more pious than zealous.

But take heart. There is yet Momin's Islam that turns on another axis. Sufism — a.k.a. Islamic mysticism —thrives among both Sunnis and Shi'as. And its central concern is not war but love. Far more often they concentrate on what sufis call the "real work" of internal, spiritual development.The two dimensions of (Jihad) first is Holy War In Islam and second is Struggle in the name of Allah (The God): First)an external jihad against the forces of ungodliness outside one's self and Second) a more difficult internal struggle — the "greater jihad" — against forces of evil within one's own being.Sufis claim that the Prophet (like other Islam-revered prophets such as Abraham, Moses, and Jesus[pbut]) was himself a sufi whose years of spiritual practice —plus the imponderable of God's grace — prepared and purified his heart to receive the Holy Qoran. The initial revelation came, without warning, in 610 CE. Despite his years of solitary prayer in a mountain cave, Mohammed[peace be upon him] was amazed and terrified. We catch that suddenness in the sufi poetry of Jalaluddin Rumi, born in or near Afghanistan in 1207.Please note that things are broken open by love and from the inside. Such emphasis on interior dynamics is condemned by most current so-called Islamism which, as with the Taliban, insists on the external letter of the self-made Sharia (Muslim Law). Sufis also observe the Law, but in less strident tones and as more a means than an end. Its deeper purpose: to serve as a "lamp" on each sect's mystical tariqa or Path of Love. Law is necessary, but Love is Truth. Sufism in Islam deserves better. Time has come for peace on Earth and Time has come to promote Sufism (Barelwism) Islam in whole World.

WAHABISME SALAFI DAN DEOBANDISM TABLIGHI
by Berelewi Tariqah

To Whom It May Concern: We testify there exists none worthy of worship, except
Allah (The God), and Muhammad is Allah's Last Messenger. My main mission is to open eyes of our Muslim Brothers and Muslim Sisters. We all muslims better learn from history and be
careful that same history should better not repeat again.

Even today so-called muslims and their terrorist organization who loves Satan Mohammed Ibn Abdul Wahhab Najdi and follow his foot steps are repeating the same history.For more information kindly visit our website's hot link "Fitnatul Wahhabiyyah - The menace
of Wahhabism". If we are really Muslims than we can not loves and follow Satan Mohammed Ibn Abdul Wahhab Najdi who declared the (Sunni Muslims)Ahle Sunna Wa Jama'a as
'Kafirs'. He passed a ruling that it was lawful to kill men, women and children belonging to the Ahle Sunna Wa Jama'a.

Mullah belongs to the Deobandi school of thought and this is what one of the founding fathers of the Deobandi/Tableeghi movement had to say about the Wahhabis. "Mohammed Ibne Abdul Wahhab is known as a Wahhabi. His beliefs were excellent." (Fatawa-e-Rashidia, Book 1,pp/111 by Rashid Ahmed Gangoi).

Now when the founding father of the Deobandi/Tableeghi school of thought praises the Wahhabi beliefs, then surely he also condones the slaughter and rape of the Muslims by these very Wahhabis. He also condones the Bombing of the Holy Shrine of the Prophet(Sallalahu alayhi wa sallam). Then, we the Sunni Muslims, would like to know, why the Deobandis/ Tableeghis object on being called Wahhabis, when their own leader has
praised the Wahhabis for their 'excellent beliefs'?

Our Prophet(Sallalahu alayhi wa sallam) never teach killing any innocent Muslims and Non-Muslims But Mohammed Ibne Abdul Wahhab is known as a Wahhabi teach killing any innocent Muslims and Non-Muslims is fine and just do it. People who call Satan Mohammed Ibne Abdul Wahhab is known as a Wahhabi a Muslim are enemy of Islam and non-muslims are thousand times better than them.

All four friends* (of the Prophet) I hold dear and I am of the slaves to the progeny of 'Alee** (Radiyal Laahu 'Anhum). Of the Hanfiyyah creed I am and belong to the millet of Hazrat Khaleel ul Laah Ibraaheem, (Alaihis-Salaam). Dust from under the feet of Ghaus-e-A'zam***(Radiyal Laahu 'Anhu) I am, and under the protection of every friend of Al-Laah (Radiyal Laahu 'Anhum).

Deobandism (Wahhabism) are the real enemy of Sufism (Barelwism) Islam in whole World and so called Sunni Muslims who are Satan Saudi link Al-Qaida who claims the terror network funded Satan Afghan Taliban and their Satan Wahhabis [Satan Salafi] and Satan Deobandis who follow Satan Mohammed Ibn Abdul Wahhab Najdi teaching terror who declared the Ahle Sunna Muslims as 'Kafirs'. He passed a ruling that it was lawful to kill men, women and children belonging to the Muslims. If any one of us call Saudi sponsored Wahabi [Deobandi] {salafi} organizations a Muslims than our brothers will be not known as Shaheed.

Time has come for Saudi sponsored Wahabi [Deobandi] {salafi} organizations who are killing Muslims and Non-Muslims to better pay price soon by handover them self to Pakistani Govt otherwise USA Govt will turn them history any way soon. Amen

Wahhabi /Deobandi/Tablighi Do Not Proclaim Ya Muhammad But Muslims Do Proclaim Ya Muhammad.

The sensitive issue of whether or not Muslims can call upon the Holy Prophet(SAW) by proclaiming the words 'Ya Rasulullah' needs to be clarified effectively, since this issue divides the Muslim community and causes untold pain and friction among the Muslim communities throughout the world. There are basically two schools of thought, one that says that calling upon the Holy Prophet(SAW) is 'shirk' and that any Muslim proclaiming 'Ya Rasulullah' in fact goes outside the pale of Islam and becomes a mushrik. Thus, such a person needs to take the 'shahadah' again in order to became a Muslim or he remains a 'mushrik'.

The following statements make clear the beliefs and ideology of this school of thought:

1. "Most people call out to the spiritual guides, the Prophets, the Imams, the martyrs, the angels, the devils and the fairies in times of distress and ask them to redress their needs. They also give them offerings for this purpose. Thus they indulge in polytheism.(Taqwiyat- ul-Imaan,P5-6, by Ismail Dehelvi)

2. "How can anyone be the redresser of needs, the solver of difficulties and holder of one's hand? People holding such beliefs are out and out polytheist. They cannot even be allowed to get married to Muslims. And those people who are informed about their
evil thoughts and even then do not call them 'apostates and polytheist' are polytheists themselves in the same degree. (Jawaahir- ul-Quraan, P147, by Ghulam Khan, Rawalpindi)

3. "He who seeks help from anyone except Allah is, in fact, a thorough polytheist. There is none in the world as bad as he. Curse be upon such a person from all(creatures) in the world." "To ask for fulfillment of ones needs and invoke them(i.e. Prophets & Saints) is
the way of the polytheist". (Tazkeer-ul-Akhwaan,P83 &P343, by Ismail Dehelvi).

The above statements belong to the Wahhabi/ Deobandi/ Tabligh Jamaat scholars according to whom it is a great sin to proclaim 'Ya Rasulullah' with the intention that the Holy Prophet(SAW) can hear such a call for help. Also seeking the 'waseela'(intercession) of the Holy Prophet(SAW) is deemed as polytheism by this school of thought. Let us now examine the beliefs of the other school of thought, namely the Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat, who believe it is permissible to proclaim 'Ya Rasulullah' according to Islamic Law.

The following proofs have been forwarded by this school of thought in their support:

1. Imam Bukhari(RA) in his Kitaabu Adaabul Mufrad has written that Hazrat Adullah ibn Omar(RA) once suffered from cramp. Someone advised him to remember the person whom he loved most. The great Companion then proclaimed loudly: "Ya Muhammad", it is recorded that he was
immediately relieved of the cramps.

2. Imam Tabraani(RA) in his Muh'jam records the following incident: "A person in dire need once visited Ameerul Mu'mineen Hazrat Uthman Ghani(RA). The Caliph though, due to other work, did not pay much heed to this man. The person thereafter went to Hazrat Uthman bin Hanif(RA) and complained about the matter. Hazrat Uthman bin Hanif(RA) ordered the man to perform Wudhu, enter the Masjid and offer two rakaats of Nafil Salaah, he was then to
recite the following Du'a: "O Allah, I beg of you and I seek your Assistance, with the Waseela of Your Beloved Prophet(SAW) who is the Prophet of Mercy. O Muhammad!, I turn to Allah with your Waseela so that my needs be fulfilled!.

The man was then told to mention his need. After completion he and Hazrat Uthman bin Hanif(RA) both visited the august court of the Caliph. The man was successful in his encounter with the Caliph andthanked Hazrat Uthman bin Hanif(RA) for mentioning him to the Caliph.
But Hazrat Uthman bin Hanif (RA) replied that he had not approached the Caliph at all, he then stated: "By Allah, I saw the Holy Prophet (SAW) teaching the very same Du'a to a blind man. Miraculously the blind man then approached us before we could even complete our conversation, and he appeared as if he had never been blind".

3. Imam-e-Mujtahid Sayyidi Abdur Rahman Masoodi(RA) was the grandson of Hazrat Abdullah ibn Masood(RA). He was also a very great Jurist and a Taabieen of high rank. It is said he used to wear a long hat on which were inscribed the words "Muhammad, Ya poor". Substantiating this, Imam Hasheem bin Jameel Az Zaaki(RA) who was among the great
Ulema and Muhaddatheen of the time states: "I saw him (i.e. Hazrat Abdur Rahman Masoodi) place a long hat on his head, on it were inscribed the words "Muhammad, Ya Mansoor".

4. Sayyidi Jamal bin Abdullah bin Omar Makki(RA), in his Fatawa states that he was questioned about those people who proclaim in times of difficulty: "YaRasulullah, Ya Ali, Ya Shaikh Abdul Qadir" as to these proclamations being permissible in Islam. The great Scholar replied "Yes, these proclamations are permissible, to call upon them is permissible including using their names as Waseelas (intercessions). This is permissible in the light of shari'ah. Such an act is desirable and approved. Only those individuals who are stubborn and arrogant would oppose or question this reality, and they verily are unfortunate and deprived of the Barakaat of the Awliya Allah".

5. Imam Allama Chairmen Ramble(RA), the illustrious teacher of Islamic scholars and the writer of one of the most authentic book on Islamic Jurisprudence "DourMukhtar" states in his Fatawa Khayria: "People who proclaim, Ya Abdul Qadir are merely emulating a call, what therefore is the reason for it not to be permissible?". There are numerous occasions when the great and ordinary people have called upon the Holy Prophet(SAW) and received help, we have but quoted a few instances. The following great personalities deem it permissible to proclaim "Ya Rasulullah" whether in the life time of the Holy Prophet(SAW) or after, in Medina or in Deoband!

In fact the list is endless, and with such great personalities, that even the opponents of the proclamation of "Ya Rasulullah" can ill afford to ignore. Having forwarded both points of view, we shall now quote an independent source dating some 600 years before the adventof the Holy Prophet Muhammad Mustafa(SAW) on this Earth.

A crowd of more then 5,000 were addressed by Isa(AS) who told them about the coming of the great Prophet Muhammad(SAW), on hearing his words the crowd reacted as follows: "Then the crowd lifted their voices saying: 'O' God, send us thy messenger. 'O'(Ya) Muhammad, come
quickly for the salvation of the world." (Gospel of Barnabas, Chapter 97).

Now Isa(AS), who is one of the great Prophets of Allah, did not reprimand his followers for saying "Ya Muhammad". Nor did he brand his followers as 'mushriks'. Then who are these
Wahabi/Deobandi/Tableeghi mullahs to brand Muslims, who proclaim 'Ya Muhammad', as mushriks. Perhaps these mullahs consider themselves greater in knowledge then Isa(AS).

At the end of the day it is up to you to decide upon your beliefs but bear in mind a few points.

1. Until the end of the Khalifat and the dominance of the Wahabi movement some 70 years ago, no Khalifa of Islam passed a law banning people from proclaiming"Ya Rasulullah".

2. No Mahdhab of the Sunni school of thought gave a fatwa of 'shirk' upon those who proclaim "Ya Rasulullah".

3. If you still believe in the Wahhabi /Deobandi/Tablighi school of thought, then you are, in fact, declaring that all your fathers and forefather who used to proclaim"Ya Rasulullah" and hold Milad-un-Nabi ceremonies, were 'mushriks'. So, if you are prepared to hold your fathers & forefathers as 'mushriks', then so be it. But if you are men of integrity, then come out fighting for the truth and establish the truth in your Mosques. Stand up to the evil Wahabi/Deobandi/Tablighi mullahs and Allah will reward you.
May Allah give us the courage and strength to establish the truth. May He protect our Iman from the evil scholars of shaitan. Ameen.

Have Salafis Taken Over the Muslim World and Muslim Communities
Answered by Mufti Muhammad ibn Adam, Darul Iftaa (Leicester, UK)

I live in England and I feel very depressed. Everywhere I go, I seem to only meet salafis and salafi inclined people. I have been searching for a wife for the past two years, but I find a similar result there. This has left me feeling very isolated and confused. I learnt that the traditional path is the path of the majority, but my experience in life seems contrary to that. The relatively open minded, spiritual way of those scholars that give
speeches about this path appealed to me, but I cannot seem to find any like minded people, except those that are as insular as the salafis and attack other Muslims (who follow a madhab and the maturidi aqeedah) because of issues such as non-celebration of the mawlid

I''ve met Muslims from the middle east and they are also salafi inclined. It seems that only those from indian subcontinent are not. How can I be certain that the path I have chosen is correct? Since the salafis/wahabbis control the two Holy Cities, does that not
imply that Allah has favoured them? I thought bid''ah could not exist in Madinah

Answer:
In the name of Allah, Most Compassionate, Most Merciful, It’s just that you have had bad luck in meeting the wrong people. It is incorrect to say that the majority of the Muslims are Salafis and that only Muslims from the Indian subcontinent are non-Salafis. The fact is that, over 85% of Muslims follow the traditional orthodox Sunni path of the mainstream Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jama’ah. This has been the way for over thousand years, and only recently (in the last 30 years) has the so called Salafi sect come into existence.

The majority of Sunni Muslims in the Indo/Pak, Asia, Turkey, Syria, Iraq, UAE and many other countries follow the Hanafi Madhab. Muslims in Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Yemen, Egypt and parts of Syria generally follow the Shafi’i school. The Maliki Madhab is mostly practised in North African countries, such as Tunisia, Algeria, Mauritania, Morocco, Libya and others. The Hanbalis can be found in parts of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Syria and other countries. The Ash’ari and Maturudi Aqidahs are also quite widespread in these Muslim lands.

Therefore, it is totally incorrect to assume that Sunni Muslims are in the minority; rather, as they have always been, they remain the mainstream and the majority. Sayyiduna Abd Allah ibn Umar (Allah be pleased with him) narrates that the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace) said: “Verily Allah does not gather my Ummah-or he said, the Ummah of the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace)-upon deviation, and Allah's hand (assistance, protection and mercy) is over the group, and whoever diverges from them diverges to hellfire.” (Sunan Tirmidhi, no. 2167)

Therefore, rest assured that the path you have chosen is the right one, and that which the majority of the Muslims follow. In England there are many Sunni scholars, in fact the majority of the Masjids and Imams are almost all Sunni. You may have to move out from the narrow and limited circle that you find yourself in.

As for the disputes among Muslims who all follow the same traditional Sunni way, follow a Madhhab and the Maturudi Aqida, is surely something that is very unfortunate. Such people should be explained in a nice and gentle manner to leave these petty issues (regarding which one will not be asked on the Day of Judgment) to one side and concentrate more on the basics of Islam. You must also avoid falling into such arguments, and having such people around should never deter you from following the Sunni way.

Regarding your final point on the Salafis controlling the Haramayn, it should be kept in mind that controlling the sacred lands is not in any way a proof for one being on the true path. There are numerous examples in history where people on falsehood had control on such sacred lands. Until not too long ago, the holy lands were controlled by Sunni scholars. The sacred Mosques of Makkah al-Mukarrama and Madina al-Munawwara used to witness four congregations for each Salat in accordance with the four traditional Sunni schools of Islamic law. Many great scholars lived and taught there for centuries. It was only until when Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab and his followers imposed their ideologies in these lands.

What is relevant that, there are great Sunni scholars till this day living in these lands despite the tight vigilance of the government and Salafi/Wahhabi oriented circles. Scholars such as, Shaykh Muhammad al-Awwama (a great Syrian Hanafi scholar), Shaykh Habib Zayn (a great Yemeni Shafi’i and Tasawwuf scholar), Shaykh Abd al-Hafidh al-Makki (a great Hanafi and Sufi scholar originally from Pakistan), Sayyidi Alawi al-Maliki (in Makka al-Mukarrama) and others reside and teach in these blessed lands.

One of the great Hanafi and Hadith scholars from India, Imam Muhammad Zakariyya al-Khandahlawi (Allah have mercy on him) spent many years of his later life in Madina al-Munawwara. His students and disciples number in many. My own personal Shaykh, Mawlana Shaykh Muhammad Yusuf Mutala (Allah preserve him) was one of his main students. I personally heard from my Shaykh that, in the late seventies, the current head of the Imams of Haram in Makkah, Shaykh Muhammad ibn Abd Allah al-Subayl (who was also an Imam then) would regularly come and attend the Dhikr and Tasawwuf gatherings of Shaykh Muhammad Zakariyya. Finally, remember the Hadith of the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace).

Sayyiduna Abd Allah ibn Umar (Allah be pleased with him) narrates that the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace) said: “O Allah! Bless our Sham and our Yemen. They (Sahaba) said: “Our Najd as well.” The Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace) again said: “O Allah! Bless our Sham and our Yemen. They said again, “Our Najd as well.” The Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace) said: “There, will appear earthquakes and tribulations, and from there will rise the horn of Shaytan.” (Sahih al-Bukhari, no. 990). And Allah knows best

Assalam-u-alaikum Shaykh Abdul-Hadi, I wanted to tell you something that might interest you. Remember I told you that I've studied with Shaykh Samir ("habashis") and their organization called AICP (Association of Islamic Charitable Projects)? Well, I consider him (to my knowledge) a scholar of Ahl al-Sunna. The surprising thing is that Shaykh Samir has written a small book against Shaykh Nazim al-Qubrusi. Shaykh Samir has proof from Shaykh Nazim's own books that he is an "innovator." I am confused on this issue. Shaykh Samir's refutation is on the world-wide-web. PLEASE read it and tell me your opinions about it. Shaykh Hisham Kabbani hates Shaykh Samir and his organization. Here is the web-site: http://www.aicp.org/html/preface.htm

Refutation against Shaykh Qubrusi by Shaykh Samir al-Kadi

I look forward to hearing from you about this refutation against Shaykh Qubrusi by Shaykh Samir al-Kadi. According to Shaykh Samir, Shaykh Qubrusi is a "fake" follower of the Naqshbandi sufi order. Is this true? Please verify this for me. BarakAllahu-fik. Assalam-u-alaikum-wa-Rehmtullah. Your brother and student, Zubair

ANSWER :

Wa 'alaykum salam wr wb dear Brother Zubair. Until now, I have always abstained from criticizing Nazim al-Qubrusi, out of two main reasons: he was in the Naqshbandi silsilah, and his organization has converted to Islam many non-Muslims, especially in Europe and the US. It is a well-known fact that he is not a real 'alim in Islamic sciences, and some explanations about the Shari'ah I personally heard from him are at least questionable.
Decadence and deviations in tariqahs are a generalized situation, and that is the main reason why I do not tell Muslims, "Enter this or this other tariqah".

The Sufi path is effective when the Shaykh is a real murshid, that is to say, a wali, and a wali is always, by definition, an 'alim. When you follow a tariqah whose shaykh, although not a wali, is a Sunni 'alim, you can at least increase you hasanats and your knowledge. Many of today's shuyukhs are not even ulemas, but having a shaykh who is only a pious Muslim could in some cases be enough.

The problem is - as always - that most of non-learnt shuyukhs can fall victims to kibr and pride, and Shaytan can influence them in creating bid'ahs and preaching strange doctrines. Imam Rabbani restored Sufism to a 100 % concordance with the Shari'ah, and the Naqshbandi tariqah has been for centuries a warranty of correctness in 'aqidah, fiqh and kalam. What I know is that high-level Naqshbandis in Istanbul (at least ten years ago) were fearing that Nazim would fall in dalalah: the project of "creating a form of da'wah for Western disciples" was quite hazardous, and the sentences quoted in Shaykh Samir's paper are enough to show that Nazim has already crossed the border that separate Sunni Islam from Batinism. The real risk is that his disciples will loose their iman and became another misguided sect. After Qadiyyanis and Bahais, we will have Nazimis, too! May Allah protect this Ummah from such a opportunity!

Unfortunately, finding Nazim's books in Italy is difficult. But there is no doubt that his local organization is quite strange. Most of his followers are completely unlearnt, and think that studying Islamic sciences is useless, since the "correct" way to approach Allah is not "reading the Koran, studying hadiths, studying fiqh, etc", but only "living with the Shaykh and attending his lessons". Some of them converted years ago, and are yet unable to read Arabic letters. I know a person that is called "Shaykh", claims to be Nazim's representative in Italy, but is not able to read from the Koran...

I forwarded him a copy of your study on Mawalids, and he answered me, "Writing about the Shari'ah is dangerous and must be avoided. One risks committing mistakes..." When a Muslim start thinking, "I must accept everything that comes from my Shaykh, even in cases it contradicts the Shari'ah", he is separating himself from Ahl as-Sunnah and becoming a batini. On the contrary, as Shaykh Samir remembers, the Sahabahs used to discuss even Omar's ijtihad! Can Nazim, or someone else, be better than Omar al-Khattab in understanding the Shari'ah? Insha Allah Ta'ala, if you are able to find some of Nazim's books, please try to send me them by mail. I will study them accurately and - insha Allah -will ask the Board here to discuss the opportunity of a fatwa. May Allah always bless you and increase your science, wa-s-salamu 'alaykum wr wb.

SECOND LETTER

Assalam-u-'alaykum-wa-Rehmatullahi-wa-Barakatuh Shaykh Abdl-Hadi, BarakAllahu-fik for your prompt replies to my messages. You are never fatigued to bid the "ma'roof" and forbid the munkar fi-SabiLillah. JazakAllahu al-khair! Hisham Kabbani's organization replied to the refutation by Shaykh Samir against Nazim at the following web-site: http://naqshbandi.org/frmteach.htm

After reading it, I was not absolutely convinced because Kabbani's organization didn't answer to every single point that Shaykh Samir made against him. The bottom line is, if what Shaykh Samir al-Kadi quoted is true or not. The books are available over here in the United States. I'll buy his books and mail them to you InshaAllah. A Fatwa from your Association would be beneficial indeed after much circumspection of proof and claims from both sides. On a personal level, I have not heard or read anything in Hisham Kabbani's homepage that is incorrect (to my knowledge). About Nazim, I haven't read his books, but I have a very trustworthy and reliable friend over here who has, and he says that what Shaykh Samir quoted from his books was absolutely true.

In fact, Shaykh Samir has named Hisham Kabbani as a deviant too since he heard him say: "Muhammad is Rahman." Furthermore, Shaykh Samir has named Nazim's Shaykh, Daghistani, a deviant also! Here is more of what Shaykh Samir said: "Also be warned against a faction known as ad-Daghistaniyyah who claim to follow the Naqshabandiyyah tariqah. They follow a man called Abdullah ad-Daghistaniyyah, who claimed he died and 124,000 prophets came and brought him back to life. He said he would not die again until the mahdiyy appears, and that he would live for seven years with the Imam al-Mahdi. Allahu akbar; he died about four months after he made that claim! Among his misguided sayings is: "He who recites the Fatihah will receive merits and benefits that no one among the waliyys or the prophets of Allah will receive--even if the person who recites the Fatihah was openly a blasphemer or a hypocrite who conceals his blasphemy."

Abdullah ad- Daghistaniyyah's successor is a man named Nadhim al-Qubruziyy, also known as Nadhim al-Haqqaniyy. His group is present in this country represented by a misguided man by the name of Hisham Qabbaniyy and in other countries represente d by his brother, Adnan Qabbaniyy. They have several followers who follow them in ignorance." The aforementioned is what is written in Shaykh Samir's organization's website (AICP) at:
http://www.aicp.org/html/sufism_part_2.htm To see the main-page of AICP, go to:
http://www.aicp.org

Believe me shaykh, it seems to me that Nazim's followers follow him even when he is wrong. For instance, Shaykh Samir quoted from Nazim's book that if a Muslim goes to a guest's house, he should not be rude. If he is not sure that the meat he is eating is halal or not, he should say shahada a certain number of times, say something else a certain number of times, and then eat the meat. This is completely absurd. I will verify the quotes myself and then mail the books to you. If you can solve this dilemma for us, it would be great. On the AICP homepage, you will see Shaykh Samir's contact information. You may contact him in case you have specific questions about Nazim.

Also, there have been refutation web-sites against Shaykh Samir's organization by wahhabees (and ikweb-site:mazingly, it is also posted on the Naqshbandi homepage! Here is the web-site URL: http://www.islam.org.au/articles/older/AHBASH.HTM
It was surprising to me that the Naqshbandi homepage included this article in their homepage, when it is quite obvious that it was written by a wahhabi or ikhwani. I wrote a message to Kabbani's organization asking them to verify WHO exactly the author is, but they didn't reply. As to whether those quotes are true or not, I don't know. Shaykh Samir can shed some light on that. That's all for now. May Allah bless you for your efforts and propagation of Truth. Ameen. Wassalam Zubair

ANSWER :
As-salamu 'alaykum wr wb dear Brother Zubair. Obviously, the most terrible aspect underlined in Shaykh Samir's paper is Hisham Kabbani's declaration according to which "the Prophet (sall-Allahu 'alayhi wa sallam) is ar-Rahman". According to the Arabic grammar, the name ar-Rahman can be used for Allah only, and saying, "a created being is ar-Rahman" is kufr al-zahir (explicit unbelief); there is no difference between this form of kufr and the doctrine of those Christians who say, "Inna Allaha Huwa al-Masih ibnu Maryam". Even Jews are using this name for Allah only. If Kabbani has already said so, (and there is no reason to doubt about Shaykh Samir's words), that means he is ignoring the basic knowledge of sifat ad-Dhatiyyah and at-Thubutiyyah. Ulemas of 'ilmu-l-kalam regard this knowledge as fard 'ayni! Some Divine names can be used for created being, too.

We can say, for instance, Zayd is a just person ('adil), is learnt ('alim), or ready to forgive (ra'uf), or even merciful (rahim). That means that is created nature participate (in a partial and limited way) of this attribute. Allah Himself says the Prophet (sall-Allahu 'alayhi wa sallam) is "bi-l-mu'minina ra'uf-ur-rahim". On the contrary, there are other attributes that, in His science, Allah Ta'ala reserved for Himself only, and using them for created beings is kufr. None can be called "Quddus", "Maliku 'l-mulk", "Dhu 'l-jalali wa-l-ikram", etc. These Names only refer to the One Who is "Alladhi la ilaha illa Hu". Ar-Rahman is one of these names, and it is the closest one to the Dhat ilahiyyah express by the name "Allah". For this reason Allah says, "Supplicate Allah, or supplicate ar-Rahman...", and the Prophet (sall-Allahu 'alayhi wa sallam) said, "The most beautiful names (for a Muslim) are 'Abd-Ullah and 'Abdu-r-Rahman".

It is quite hard to think that someone who ignores all this is a legitimate heir of the silsilah of Shaykh an-Naqshbandi and Imam Rabbani. Words attributes to Shaykh Daghestani are really dangerous, too. The Sunni 'aqidah is "A Ulu-l-'azm is closer to Allah than a Rasul, a Rasul is closer than a Nabi, a Nabi is closer than a Wali, and a Wali is closer than a non-Wali". This doctrine is so generally accepted that even Ibn Taimiyyah repeats it in its traditional formulation. A single 'ibadah cannot make a person better than a Wali or a Prophet, while those who say, "A Wali can reach a higher degree than a Prophet" are Imamiyyah, Ismailiyyah or Batiniyyah. Please, if it is possible for you, forward a copy of this message of mine to Shaykh Samir al-Kadi. I want of express my support for his jihad, and tell him "Jazak-Allahu khayra". In the meanwhile, insha Allah Ta'ala, I will read Kabbani's answer. In my opinion, a real Sunni 'alim would never quote a wahhabi-salafi document to support his point of view. Al-Haqq cannot be supported by al-batil, since al-batil disappears when al-Haqq comes. May Allah bless you again and again, and reward you for your precious work. I am always remembering you in my du'ahs.
Abdul Hadi Palazzi

Question: A few days back [someone] defaced a dua on the wall of the mosque, claiming that it contained bid'aat. This was the very post-azan dua, in which the words "wad-darajat al-rafi'a" and "wa[r] zukna shafa'atuhu yaum al-qiyama" were found objectiona[ble].... This caused quite a stir in the mosque, as even the imam ... seemed implicated in the move, citing ahadith to establish that these words were alien to the sunnah and added by unscrupulous malbelievers. ... Although non-scholars, it seems hightly improbably to us that the jumhur should have been so wrong and for so long. Could you please provide the references and contextualization urgently needed?

1. As for the wording “wal-darajat al-rafī‘a”: the sound wording of the post-adhān du‘ā does not contain the words “wad-darajat al-rafī‘a” but only “al-wasīlata wal-fad.īla.” This is found in the two S.ah.īh.s of al-Bukhārī (see Arabic text immediately below) and Muslim, the four Sunan, the Musnad of Imām Ah.mad, and others. The h.adīth states, as narrated from Jābir ibn ‘Abd Allāh , that the Prophet saw said: “Whoever says, upon hearing the call [to prayer]: ‘Allāhumma rabba hādhihi al-da‘wati al-tāmmati wal-s.alāti al-qā’ima, āti Muh.ammadan al-wasīlata wal-fad.īlata wa-b‘athhu maqāman mah.mūdan al-ladhī wa‘adtahu – O Allāh! Lord of this perfect call and everlasting prayer, give Muh.ammad the Means and the Eminence, and raise him to a glorious station which you have promised him’ – my intercession takes place for him the Day of Resurrection.”

The Prophet saw said, as narrated from Abū Sa‘īd al-Khudrī by Ah.mad and Ismā‘īl al-Qād.ī in Fad.l al-S.alāt ‘alā al-Nabī (p. 48) with a fair chain according to al-Fayrūz Ābādī in al-S.ilāt wal-Bushar (p. 74) that the Wasīla or Means was “a level (darajatun) in the Divine presence above which there was no higher level (laysa fawqahā daraja).” Similarly, the fad.īla also precisely means “the exalted level,” i.e. the daraja rafī‘a. So the words wal-darajata al-rafī‘a are in fact a gloss that became interpolated into the text of the du‘a, as found in Imām Abū ‘Abd Allāh al-Jazūlī’s book Dalā’il al-Khayrāt (which is by the agreement of the Umma one the Signs of Allāh Most High in the science of invoking blessings and salutations upon our Prophet) and other devotional literature.

Does it change the meaning? No, it clarifies it. Does it constitute an addition to the text of the h.adīth? Yes, its technical name being mudraj or interpolated discourse. Is it alien to the Sunna and/or does it constitute a bid‘a? No! It is in essence like saying: “al-wasīlata wal-fad.īla, meaning, wad-darajat al-rafī‘a.” Which wording is better? The one reported in the S.ah.īh.ayn and Sunan.

This said, al-T.abarānī narrated in al-Mu‘jam al-Kabīr (8:237 #7926) from Abū Umāma al-Bāhilī the following wording:

Meaning: From Abū Umāma: The Prophet said: “Whoever supplicates with these words or supplications after every obligatory prayer, my intercession will take place for him on the Day of Resurrection: ‘Allāhumma ‘t.i Muh.ammadan al-wasīlata wa-j‘al fīl-mus.t.afayni mah.abbatahu wafīl-‘ālīna darajatahu wafīl-muqarrabīna dārahu – O Allāh! Give Muh.ammad the means [of nearness to You], and place love of him among the [deeds of the] Elect, and his level in the highest, and his abode among those brought near [to You]!’”

Al-Haythamī in Majma‘ al-Zawā’id (10:112) said it is narrated with a chain containing Mut.t.arih. ibn Yazīd who is weak. However, the h.adīth Masters and the great Jurists and major authorities of Us.ūl al-Fiqh concur that it is permissible to put into practice weak h.adīths in meritorious deeds not bearing on the h.alāl and the h.arām as long as [1] the meanings of such a weak h.adīth are firmly confirmed by principles already established in the Law, [2] the h.adīth is not excessively weak, such as containing someone accused of forgery in its chain, and [3] one does not hold that the Prophet said or did it for sure. The above h.adīth meets all the above criteria, hence Imām al-Mundhirī retained it in his manual of recommended acts titled al-Targhīb wal-Tarhīb (1997 ed. 2:300 #2473) as did the h.adīth Master ‘Abd al-Ghanī al-Maqdisī as stated by Zayn al-Dīn Sha‘bān ibn Muh.ammad al-Āthārī (d. 828) in his epistle al-Khayr al-Kathīr fīl-S.alāt wal-Salām ‘alā al-Bashīr al-Nadhīr (in his Khamsat Nus.ūs. Islāmiyya Nādira, Dār al-Gharb al-Islāmī ed. p. 57) although the latter refers it through Ibn Mas‘ūd.

2. As for the wording “wa-rzuqnā shafā‘atahu yawma al-qiyāma”: it too is not contained in the sound narration cited above. However, it is found in weak narrations that meet the criteria of permissible use in the Sharī‘a, and Allāh knows best. Among these narrations:

First, the narration from Ibn ‘Abbās *# in al-T.abarānī’s al-Mu‘jam al-Kabīr (12:85 #12554) that the Prophet said: “Whoever hears the call to prayer then says: ‘Ashhadu an lā ilāha illā-Llāh wah.dahu lā sharīka lah, wa-anna Muh.ammadan ‘abduhu wa-rasuluh; Allāhumma s.alli ‘alayhi wa-ballighhu darajata al-wasīlati ‘indak, wa-j‘alnā fī shafā‘atihi yawma al-qiyāma – I bear witness that there is no God but Allāh alone, without partner, and that Muh.ammad is His servant and Messenger; O Allāh! bless him and bring him to the level of means to You, and place us in his intercession the Day of Resurrection’: my intercession will be guaranteed for him.” Its chain contains Ish.āq ibn ‘Abd Allāh ibn Kaysān who is slightly weak while the rest of its narrators are highly trustworthy as per al-Haythamī in Majma‘ al-Zawā’id (1:333). Al-Mundhirī adduces it in al-Targhīb wal-Tarhīb (1997 ed. 1:117 #400).

Second, the narration from Abū al-Dardā’  by al-T.abarānī in al-Awsat. (4:78-79 #3662) that the Prophet  would say, upon hearing the call to prayer, “Allāhumma rabba hādhihi al-da‘wati al-tāmmati wal-s.alāti al-qā’ima, s.alli ‘alā ‘abdika wa-rasūlika wa-j‘alnā fī shafā‘atihi yawma al-qiyāma – O Allāh! Lord of this perfect call and everlasting prayer, bless Your servant and Messenger, and place us in his intercession the Day of Resurrection;” [and that] the Messenger of Allāh  said: “Whoever says this upon [hearing] the call [to prayer], Allāh will place him in my intercession the Day of Resurrection.” Its chain contains S.adaqa ibn ‘Abd Allāh al-Samīn whom al-Haythamī said some weakened while others declared trustworthy.

Third the narration from Jābir  by Ibn Wahb (125-197) in his Jāmi‘ adduced by Shaykh al-Islām Shams al-Dīn al-Qast.allāni in his masterpiece, Masālik al-H.unafā’ (p. 279) in which the Prophet  says: “Whoever says, upon hearing the call to prayer: ‘O Allāh! Lord of this perfect call and everlasting prayer, bless Muh.ammad, Your servant and Messenger, and give him the means and intercession on the Day of Resurrection’: my intercession takes place for him.”

Fourth, the narration from Ibn ‘Umar *# by Ismā‘īl al-Qād.ī in Fad.l al-Salāt ‘alā al-Nabī  (p. 49) in which the Prophet  said: “Whoever invokes blessings upon me or asks the wasīla for me, my intercession takes place for him on the day of resurrection.” Al-Fayrūz Ābādī in al-S.ilāt wal-Bushar (p. 68) said its narrators were trustworthy and it is confirmed by the h.adīth of the S.ah.īh.ayn and Sunan already cited.

Al-Qast.allānī also adduces the two reports (p. 284) already mentioned from Ibn ‘Abbās and Abū al-Dardā’.

In addition, he mentions (p. 227-228) two explicit Prophetic reports that support the fundamental creed that invoking blessings on the Prophet  leads to obtaining his intercession: [1] “Whoever invokes blessings upon me, I will be his intercessor the Day of Resurrection”. Narrated from Abū Bakr al-S.iddīq by Ibn Abī Dāwūd and al-H.asan ibn Ah.mad ibn al-Bannā’ with a good chain according to al-Fayrūz Ābādī in al-S.ilātu wal-Bushar (p. 34) as stated in Ibn al-Qayyim’s Jalā’ and Sirāj al-Dīn’s al-S.alāt (p. 141). [2] “Whoever invokes blessings upon me ten times in the morning and ten times in the evening, my intercession will include him on the Day of Resurrection.” Narrated from Bakr ibn ‘Abd Allāh al-Muzanī by al-T.abarānī – with a good mursal chain according to al-Sakhāwī in al-Qawl al-Badī‘ (p. 116) and al-Haythamī in Majma‘ al-Zawā’id (10:120) – and Abū Sa‘d al-Wā‘īz. al-Naysābūrī in his book al-Wafā fī Sharaf al-Mus.t.afā according to Fayrūz Ābādī in the Silāt (p. 87).

In the matter of duā the Prophet gave leeway to his Umma to invoke in the manner, quality, and quantity one desires, without being restricted to a particular wording. This is especially true when invoking blessings on him, which he stressed and encouraged even if it replaced all other du‘ās one might make. Following such a Prophetic recommendation never contradicts the Sunna, even if the most superior wordings are those that are conveyed from him, such as the S.alāt Ibrāhīmiyya in the second tashahhud.

In fact, the variegation of formulas of invocation of blessings on the Prophet  is a desirable thing when invoking much blessings upon him as we are ordered to do, because such variegation helps us to obey this command and replenish our energies without becoming bored.

In addition, practicing S.alawāt on the Prophet causes unlimited benefits, openings of spiritual meanings – such as seeing the Holy Prophet in dream or awake! – and progress in the path to Allāh Most High and His good pleasure. Hence the Ulema competed in recording the h.adīths on the merits of invoking blessings on the Prophet as well as whatever formulas of blessings and peace Allāh inspired them. These h.adīths and devotions were recorded in the following books among others: [I have marked the volumes I have read in part or in whole with an asterisk]

Shaykh Mah.mūd Muh.ammad al-Durra: Bahjat al-Arwāh. fīmā Yashghafu al-Qalba bil-H.abībi al-Mus.t.afā Kanzi al-Arbāh.  Mā Nusikha Z.illu al-Ah.zān bi-Shamsi al-Afrāh. (“The Happiness of Spirits in what Fills the Heart with Fond Love for the Beloved Elect One, the Treasure of All Gains, Allāh Bless and Greet Him for as Long as the Shadow of Sadnesses Will be Overwhelmed by the Sun of Joys”)

The upshot of the above discussion is that the words “wal-darajat al-rafī‘a” and “wa-rzuqnā shafā‘atahu yawma al-qiyāma” are neither “alien to the sunnah” nor the handiwork of “unscrupulous malbelievers.” One that claims such a thing not only commits ghuluw – exaggeration – but risks dire consequences in his Religion by dismissing and bad-mouthing meanings that were certainly meant and wordings that may well have been used by the Prophet , and were certainly used by numerous major Masters of H.adīth and others of the early and later Salaf and Friends of Allāh.

And Allāh knows best. May Allāh protect us from the slip of the tongue; cure any sickness in our hearts with regard to the Holy Prophet Muh.ammad – upon him and his Family blessings and peace; protect us from a bad end; grant His Prophet the highest rank; and grant us his intercession! Āmīn.

The Good & the Bad Stephen Schwartz on Islam and Wahhabism.
From "The National Review"
http://www.nationalreview.com/interrogatory/interrogatory111802.asp
A Q&A by Kathryn Jean Lopez

Stephen Schwartz, an author and journalist, is author of The Two Faces of Islam: The House of Sa'ud fromTradition to Terror. A vociferous critic of Wahhabism, Schwartz is a frequent contributor to National Review,The Weekly Standard, and other publications.

Kathryn Jean Lopez: What is Wahhabism?

Stephen Schwartz: Wahhabism is an extremist, puritanical, and violent movement that emerged, with the pretension of "reforming" Islam, in the central area of Arabia in the 18th century.It was founded by Ibn Abd al-Wahhab, who formed an alliance with the house of Saud, in which religious authority is maintained by the descendants of al-Wahhab and political power is held by the descendants of al-Saud: This is the Wahhabi-Saudi axis, which continues to rule today. From its beginning, Wahhabism declared the entirety of existing Islam to be unbelief, and traditional Muslims to be unbelievers subject to robbery, murder, and sexual violation.

Wahhabism has always viewed Shia Muslims genocidally, as non-Muslims worthy of annihilation. Wahhabism has always attacked the traditional, spiritual Islam or Sufism that dominates Islam in the Balkans, Turkey, Central Asia, India, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Wahhabism and neo-Wahhabism (the latter being the doctrines of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and the Pakistani Islamists) are the main source of Islamic extremist violence in the world today. Wahhabism represents a distinct, ultraradical form of Islamism. Wahhabism is completely subsidized by the Saudi regime, using oil income. Wahhabism has always maintained a two-faced policy regarding the West. It has always depended on the armed forces of the Christian nations - Britain, the U.S., and France - to secure its domination in the Arabian peninsula, while it violently attacks Jews, Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, and Buddhists, as well as traditional Sunnis, Sufis, and Shias, throughout the rest of the world. Thus, the presence of U.S. troops guarding the Saudis did not begin with the Gulf War in 1991. From 1946 to 1962 the U.S. maintained an airbase in Saudi Arabia, and before that the British assisted the Wahhabi-Saudi alliance against the Ottomans. When the Saudis needed to clear the Grand Mosque in Mecca of protestors in 1979, they employed French paratroops to kill Muslims within the walls of the mosque.

Lopez: How widespread is it?
Schwartz: Wahhabism is official in Saudi Arabia. It is influential in Qatar, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates. It has a substantial following in Yemen,which also has many Shia Muslims. It is unpopular in Bahrain and irrelevant in Oman. Outside the Peninsula, Wahhabism is generally unpopular. But where trouble is found, Wahhabism may thrive. Hamas in Israel represents pure Wahhabism. Forms of neo-Wahhabi or Wahhabized ideology have been powerful in Egypt (the Muslim Brotherhood) and in Pakistan - in both countries neo-Wahhabis lead attacks on other Muslims and other faiths. But in both countries mainstream Muslim scholars continue to struggle against Wahhabism. Wahhabi aggression was defeated in Algeria and Tajikistan.

Wahhabi infiltration continues in Chechnya, to the detriment of the just struggle of the Chechens against Russian imperialism, and in Kashmir, where it is an obstacle to resolution of the conflict. Wahhabi extremism and terrorism continue to plague Nigeria, Uzbekistan, Indonesia, and the Philippines, although its real supporters in these countries are few in number. But Wahhabi infiltration failed in Bosnia-Hercegovina and suffered a smashing repudiation in Kosovo. Albanian Muslims in Macedonia and Albania dislike Wahhabism, more intensely in the former than in the latter. Wahhabism and its surrogate, the Deobandi ideology of the Taliban, has been defeated in Afghanistan. Wahhabism has no real following in among the Muslim masses in Francophone West Africa, Morocco, Libya, the rest of Central Asia, India, or Malaysia.

As to other Middle Eastern regions and states: Saddam Hussein has used Wahhabism to give his regime an Islamic cover, but Wahhabism is deeply unpopular in Iraq.Kurdistan is mainly Sufi in its Islam and aside from a handful of mercenary extremists, Kurds reject Wahhabism. Syria, although a radical Arab state, is Islamically pluralist and rejects Wahhabism completely.

Jordan is ruled by Hashemites, who are traditional enemies of Wahhabism. Turkish Muslims loathe Wahhabism because of its role in subverting the Ottoman caliphate.Iran loathes Wahhabism as much or more, because of its massacres of Shias and wholesale destruction of Islamic holy sites, among other issues. And other trouble spots: Sudan is a case unto itself, although Wahhabi influence has been present in the Khartoum regime.

Wahhabi infiltration is a serious problem in East Africa.

In the Western European immigrant Muslim communities, Wahhabism has a presence in France but has been weakened by the atrocities in Algeria. Britain has a loud Wahhabi, neo-Wahhabi, and Wahhabi-wannabe element but little real support for it among local Muslims. Wahhabism and Islamic extremism in general are weak in Germany, where most Muslims are Turkish and Kurdish.

Lopez: How much of a threat is it within our borders?

Schwartz: Unfortunately, the U.S. is the only country outside Saudi Arabia where the Islamic establishment is under Wahhabi control. Eighty percent of American mosques are Wahhabi-influenced, although this does not mean that 80 percent of the people who attend them are Wahhabis. Mosque attendance is different from church or synagogue membership in that prayer in the mosque does not imply acceptance of the particular dispensation in the mosque. However, Wahhabi agents have sought to impose their ideology on all attendees in mosques they control.

The entire gamut of "official" Islamic organizations in the U.S., particularly the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) are Wahhabi fronts. In other such groups, like the American Muslim Council (AMC) and the Muslim Students Association (MSA) Wahhabism is in crisis, because of the devastating effect of 9/11. In addition, the Wahhabis are deeply compromised by the exposure of individuals like John Walker Lindh, Richard Reid, José Padilla, and John Muhammad.

Lopez: Why were 15 of the 19 9/11 terrorists from Saudi Arabia?

Schwartz: For three reasons. First, although no more than 40 percent of Saudi subjects, at the most, consider themselves Wahhabis, the Wahhabi clergy has controlled education in the kingdom, so that all subjects have been raised in an atmosphere of violent hatred for other Islamic traditions and for the other faiths. Second, the Saudi regime is undergoing a deep social crisis and movements of protest have been diverted by the ultra-Wahhabi faction of the royal family, toward support of Bin Laden and his gangsters.

Third, the main object of protest in the kingdom is the flagrant hypocrisy between Wahhabi Puritanism and Saudi royal decadence. Although the majority of young people want to be free of Wahhabism altogether, there remains a section of the populace that reacts - as it always has - to Saudi hypocrisy by a flight into ultraradicalism. The involvement of 15 Saudis out of 19 hijackers reflects an inevitable outcome of Wahhabi ideology,not a special tactic by Osama bin Laden.

Lopez: Why does Saudi Arabia seem to not have to answer for its citizens' roles in the 9/11 attack. Why is it not subject to closer scrutiny?
Schwartz: Cheap gas, a.k.a. "big oil."

Lopez: If Wahhabism is not Islam, why aren't more Muslims vocally renouncing the Wahhabists?

Schwartz: Nobody can say that Wahhabism or any other form of Muslim religious radicalism, is "not Islam," anymore than one can say that one or another extreme element in Judaism or Christianity do not belong to those faiths. Islam includes many strains. Over 1,000 years, pluralism within the faith was the norm, and traditional Muslims shied away from arguing that what they disliked was "not Islam," or that Muslims they opposed were "unbelievers." But with the rise of Wahhabism and, particularly, the benefits of petrodollars, the Wahhabi-Saudis have arrogated to themselves a position of leadership in the world Islamic community or umma. Their claim of preeminence is not Islamically sound, in the opinion of many scholars. Leading Muslims outside the U.S. denounce Wahhabism, and many denounced the atrocity of 9/11. Unfortunately, however, most of U.S. media is completely incompetent in finding, listening to, or understanding these voices. U.S. media does not interview anti-Wahhabi sheikhs or imams or muftis in the Islamic world.

U.S. media paid no attention when the head of Bosnian Islamic scholars, Mustafa efendija Ceric, preached eloquently against terrorism. U.S. media did not notice when an Albanian daily - in a country with a Muslim majority - hailed the U.S. action in Afghanistan last year with the headline "Nobody Veils the Statue of Liberty's Face." Nobody in the U.S. media has followed up on reports by myself and others showing that Kosovar Albanian Muslims would like to fight for the West in Iraq. Worse, U.S. media has reported very little of the mobilization of 70 million Indonesian Muslims against extremism in the aftermath of the Bali horror.

U.S. media listens to the so-called "Arab street," which is essentially irrelevant, filled as it is with yelling loiterers, or engages in polling exercises asking loaded questions. This, of course, reinforces the view of Muslims as unanimous haters of the West and America. To understand the struggle of the world's traditional Muslims against Wahhabism, you have to get away from the "Arab street" and meaningless people wandering around. You have to sit down with serious Islamic clerics and thinkers and dialogue with them in a way they understand and respect. I did this in the Balkans. This is one of several reasons I never tire of pointing out that, just as Orwell went to Spain, not Russia, to understand Stalinism, I went to Sarajevo, not Riyadh, to learn about Wahhabism.

I have never seen a single serious interview with an Islamic religious figure on Western television. This is in itself a shocking fact. Of course, first an interviewer would have to know who to interview and what questions to ask. But if you don't know who or what to ask you have no business proclaiming how much of the Islamic world hates us and supports terror. Proper media coverage of Islam, meaning the views of serious clerics and intellectuals, seems unlikely to happen in a media industry where Barbara Walters remains transfixed by Saudi princes handing out charity and Bill O'Reilly preens himself by referring to Islam as "the enemy's religion." In the wars with Japan and Vietnam, Buddhism was the religion of much of the enemy, but we never saw wholesale smears against Buddhists in the U.S. public square. Of course, for much of the media, the primitive and simplistic image of Muslims as uniformly extremist and terrorist is easier to report, more popular, and "better TV" than that of a complex conflict inside a world religion. It also supports the left-wing claim that it's all our fault, or Israel's. It's so much easier to say they all hate us because of our hegemony and Zionism than to say, as I do, that they don't all hate us, and that the real issue is the battle for the soul of Islam.

As for the situation in the U.S., condemnation of Wahhabism and even of terrorism have been sparse for the following reasons: Wahhabis (CAIR, etc.) are granted status by U.S. media as the main Islamic spokespeople. They issue ameliorative statements intended to end discussion of the problem, and they closely watch the community and prevent traditional Muslims from expressing themselves openly about Wahhabism and its involvement with
terrorism. The U.S. media let them get away with this.

Most immigrant Muslims in the U.S. came to this country to get away from extremism and are horrified to see that their faith is in extremist hands here. They believed, before coming here, that the U.S. government would never permit such a thing to happen. However, their children are often indoctrinated and radicalized by extremists operating through Muslim schools, Islamic Sunday schools, and radical campus groups. That the U.S. government turned a blind idea to the Wahhabization of American Islam is deeply shocking and disturbing for them. They feel intimidated and defeated. The fact that the U.S. political and media elite have done almost nothing to enable traditional Muslims in this country to opposeWahhabism makes the situation that much worse.

Traditional Islam rejected involvement in politics, especially radical politics. For this reason also, traditional Muslims in this country have been slow to rally against Wahhabi influence. Finally, traditional Muslims in this country and around the world were devastated by 9/11. Their reaction was one of shock, horror, and deep depression. Even many of those who tried to deny Muslim involvement in 9/11 did so because the alternative, admitting the role of terrorism in Islam today, was almost inconceivable. This is not because of agreement with the terrorists, but because of revulsion from them. Islam may not appear as "the religion of peace" to others, but most ordinary Muslims believe it is such. The evidence of 9/11 was so overwhelmingly negative many of them can best be described as profoundly demoralized.

Lopez: How would you like to see the U.S. deal with Saudi Arabia?

Schwartz: First, we have to demand, and obtain, from the Saudi authorities, a thorough and transparent accounting of Wahhabi-Saudi involvement in 9/11 – the ideological background, funding, recruitment -everything. This is indispensable for our own moral health.
Second, we have to demand that the Saudi state cut off all support for the international export of Wahhabi extremism. Third, we have to support traditional Muslims in their efforts to oppose Wahhabi influence and restore theological pluralism within Islam.

Lopez: How can the U.S. deal with the Wahhabism within its borders?

Schwartz: First, the Saudi embassy must be informed that all support for Wahhabi extremist activity, including mosques and schools, in the U.S. must end. Wahhabi hatemongering institutions like the Institute of Islamic and Arabic Sciences in America (IIASA), in Fairfax, Va. and the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY) in Alexandria, Va., as well as the U.S. office of the International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO), should be shut down completely. Their assets should be seized and their facilities padlocked.

Second, the U.S. government has no alternative but to monitor extremist discourse among Muslims in this country, including in mosques and in prison missions. Nobody would object, on grounds of protection for religious advocacy, to federal investigation of terrorist incitement among Christian antiabortion activists or ultraextremist Jews. No such exemption can be granted Muslims.

Third, U.S. non-Muslims of good will must assist and support traditional Muslims in creating an Islamic establishment in this country that is loyal to our government and to our traditions of interreligious respect. There is no obstacle to this in traditional Islam. But this also requires opposition to Islamophobia - the incitement of hatred against Islam as a faith - among non-Muslims.

Lopez: You are identified with Sufism. What attracted you to Islam? When and why did you make the plunge?

Schwartz: This is a personal matter and a long, involved story, but I will say this: I am a Sufi, and a disciple of the great 13th century Spanish Muslim mystic Ibn Arabi. I believe with him in the unity of the monotheistic faiths. Jews, Christians, and Muslims worship one God - the same God - Creator of the universe. We should therefore see one another as, ultimately, members of a single religion, not three distinct and hostile faiths. As I have put it: from the Jews, we receive the Sacred Law; from the Christians, the message of love and solidarity in the world; from the Muslims, intensity of belief.

I was attracted to Islam because of my origins in California. California is a place with immense Spanish influence. Spanish culture is a blend of Christian, Jewish, and Islamic traditions. I had a long and close relationship with Catholics, and Spanish Catholic thought shows a deep Islamic impress. As I traveled and wrote in California, Latin America, and Spain, I became increasingly interested in Islamic civilization. I was also interested in the considerable connections between Islamic spirituality and the Jewish tradition of mysticism, or Kabbalah.

Further, I was intrigued, beginning 35 years ago, by the connection between Islamic spirituality and such non-Islamic traditions as Central Asian shamanism and Buddhism. Long ago and far away, I once thought seriously of becoming an academic in this area. But my real knowledge of Sufism and of Islam emerged from my literary, historical, journalistic, and humanitarian engagement with the Bosnian Muslims and Albanian Catholics and Muslims, during the Balkan Wars of the 1990s.

My authentic education in these issues came during many years of work with the Daniel Dajani, S.J., Albanian Catholic Institute, in San Francisco. Albanian Catholics are remarkable in that although they resisted Turkish rule, and defended their faith at great risk, they never developed an Islamophobic mentality. They viewed the Turks as oppressors but the Muslims as believers. While working with the Albanian Catholics I also began to study Albanian Sufism, which is the only example of a really vigorous indigenous Sufism present in Europe today. I later studied the Sufi influence in Bosnian Islam, as well.
I went to live and work in Bosnia-Hercegovina and theAlbanian lands, and the rest fell into place. But thatstory must wait for another time, and much more elaboration, except to note the essential lesson: noMuslims in the world have suffered more than the Bosnians in recent times. Yet neither the Bosnians nor the Albanian Muslims ever turned to Wahhabism or Islamic extremism. They remain Europeans, and their Islam is European. Indeed, I believe Balkan Islam represents a powerful Islamic force for interfaith reconciliation in the West and the world.

The Prophet's Followers And Their Different Paths
By DAVID PRYCE-JONES

Stephen Schwartz describes himself as a child of California and, more than that, "a typical San Francisco student of mysticism." As a journalist, he spent much time in the 1990s in Albania and the former Yugoslavia. Serb atrocities in Bosnia and Kosovo seem to have accentuated a natural disposition in him toward Islam, particularly the folk-Islam known as Sufism, much practiced in the Balkans. In "The Two Faces of Islam" he pointedly gives Sufi muftis the title of "His Excellency," and after their names he calls for the blessings of Allah to be on them, in pious Islamic style.

All would be well, so runs Mr. Schwartz's argument, if only spirituality had its way. The opening chapters of his book are a rhapsody to Islam. The Prophet Muhammad in this perspective was a thoughtful liberal. Verses in the Quran against unbelievers are to be discounted. Pluralism among Muslims, Mr. Schwartz writes, and civility toward other faiths, characterized 1,000 years of Islam. Sufis held the key, he believes, and he loses no chance to attach to them adjectives like welcoming, passionate, pluralistic. For him the Ottoman Empire was a model society, and he credits Sufis for consolidating this last Muslim great power.

This idealization of Sufism has an appeal, but it obscures the conquests of mainstream and militant Islam, whose fusion of religion and politics is inherently absolute populations put to the sword, tribal violence and dynastic upheavals, religious intolerance as evidenced in the schism between Sunnis and Shiites, as well as the persecution of everyone deemed heretical. There is no mention in the book that the Ottomans disposed of those they didn't like, including members of the Sultan's family, by tying them in a sack and dropping it into the Bosphorus. No mention of the press-ganging of Christian children, the massacres of Greeks or the Armenian genocide. It should not be necessary to add that Christian powers were comparable in cruelty and bloodshed.

Pluralistic, peace-loving and welcoming? Or intolerant and militant?

For much of the remainder of his book, Mr. Schwartz turns with rage on Muslims who disturb his ecstatic vision of Sufi Islam. In various times and places, he notes, influential men have preached that Muslims must live exclusively under Islamic law, and they have attacked Sufis and Shiites as heretics and repudiated every Western idea. One of the most fanatical of all was Ibn Abd al-Wahhab, who flourished in Arabia in the 18th century.

Armed with his doctrine of exclusivity imposed by the sword, a tribal family, the al-Saud, carved out the kingdom of Saudi Arabia for themselves early in the 20th century. The British played a formative role in the birth of this country, out of an imperialist concern to dominate the Persian Gulf. Their agent to the al-Saud was St. John Philby, at the time an official of the British foreign office, and Mr. Schwartz sees him as central to an Anglo-Arab conspiracy to transform the whole of Islam into "a community of Wahhabi fundamentalism." Personally dishonest, Philby was certainly a shady figure, but he does not merit Mr. Schwartz's description as one of the "most appalling figures of the 20th century."

The discovery of oil in the 1930s gave Saudi Arabia money and power out of all proportion to its size and standing. Mr. Schwartz has no trouble showing how the ruling al-Saud family, now at least 4,000 strong and altogether a mafia of princely parasites, hypocritically claims to be advancing Islam while in practice monopolizing the money and power that came to them fortuitously. Greed and vanity play a part, but more importantly the al-Saud continue to be driven by Wahhabism.

Previously only specialists have concentrated on this branch of Islam. Mr. Schwartz is the first commentator to bring its doctrine to public attention, along with the damage it does. All credit to him. Wahhabism aims first to subdue all Muslims to its extremism, then to confront unbelievers. It is a religious imperialism, totalitarian in conception, and Mr. Schwartz likens it to communism.

Just as once the Soviet Union built parties and secret cells abroad to further its expansion, so in the name of Wahhabism the members of the al-Saud dynasty sponsored Taliban and Pakistani extremists, intervened in the Balkans, recruited for the Chechens, and supported Saddam Hussein against Iran. Today they finance violence against Israel, back the Islamists of Uzbekistan and the rest of Central Asia, and provide the inspiration and the funds for Osama bin Laden. Several leading Muslim organizations in the U.S. are in Wahhabi hands, fomenting separatism while expressing ambivalence about terrorism.

Ranging widely, Mr. Schwartz provides much valuable information and insight. The case against Saudi Arabia and its foreign policy is irrefutable, but Mr. Schwartz spoils his alternative vision of an idealized Islam by exaggerating or by passing over awkward facts. If Bosnia was always a Sufi paradise of peace, how come a Bosnian SS division fought for Hitler? Shiite Iran is opposed to Wahhabism, so Mr. Schwartz defends Iranian clerics as honest and peace-loving when they are notoriously corrupt and some of them mass-murderers. The U.S. has in the past protected Saudi Arabia, but this was out of ignorance and short-sightedness, not because, as Mr. Schwartz seems to believe, the U.S. has replaced Britain as the willing tool of Wahhabi expansionism.

After the necessary regime change in Saudi Arabia, Mr. Schwartz hopes for a reconciliation of the Abrahamic faiths, with everyone listening to music and clasping hands in universal brotherhood. Yes, he's a San Francisco student of mysticism all right. Mr. Pryce-Jones is the author of "The Closed Circle: An Interpretation of the Arabs" (Ivan R. Dee).

As-Salamu `alaykum: Do Hanafi and other Sunni scholars accept the writings and teachings of Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani of the Islamic Supreme Council of North America (such as his Encyclopedia of Islamic Doctrine and Beliefs according to Ahl as-Sunna, for example) as reliable. I have heard some speak out against him and his Shaykh (Muhammad Nazim Adil), but I have also heard others praise him. I am genuinely confused.

Regarding Mawlana al-Shaykh Nazim I am unworthy to speak of him. As for Shaykh Hisham then may Allah save him and inspire him the right course. As for the Encyclopedia of Islamic Doctrine it may in sha' Allah continue to remain a useful and reliable reference in English against certain heresies that are troubling the Umma, except for a couple of pages in which errors crept in. Namely, the claim (7:114) that women passed the hand of the Prophet (upon him peace) over their bodies! and that this is in Bukhari! No it is not, nor in any other book of hadith in the history of Islam. Also, the statement from Shaykh Salah Nassar (7:188) that "there is disagreement" whether handshake with women took place in bay`a or not, which is false--it is unanimously established that there was never a direct handshake; third, Shaykh Salah's claim that a certain hadith is in Bukhari: also incorrect. May Allah accept the rest and make it beneficial.

Hajj Gibril

Have Salafis Taken Over the Muslim World and Muslim Communities
Answered by Mufti Muhammad ibn Adam, Darul Iftaa (Leicester, UK)

I live in England and I feel very depressed. Everywhere I go, I seem to only meet salafis and salafi inclined people. I have been searching for a wife for the past two years, but I find a similar result there. This has left me feeling very isolated and confused. I learnt that the traditional path is the path of the majority, but my experience in life seems contrary to that. The relatively open minded, spiritual way of those scholars that give speeches about this path appealed to me, but I cannot seem to find any like minded people, except those that are as insular as the salafis and attack other Muslims (who follow a madhab and the maturidi aqeedah) because of issues such as non-celebration of the mawlid, etc. I''ve met Muslims from the middle east and they are also salafi inclined. It seems that only those from indian subcontinent are not. How can I be certain that the path I have chosen is correct? Since the salafis/wahabbis control the two Holy Cities, does that not imply that Allah has favoured them? I thought bid''ah could not exist in Madinah.

Answer: In the name of Allah, Most Compassionate, Most Merciful, It’s just that you have had bad luck in meeting the wrong people. It is incorrect to say that the majority of the Muslims are Salafis and that only Muslims from the Indian subcontinent are non-Salafis. The fact is that, over 85% of Muslims follow the traditional orthodox Sunni path of the mainstream Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jama’ah. This has been the way for over thousand years, and only recently (in the last 30 years) has the so called Salafi sect come into existence.

The majority of Sunni Muslims in the Indo/Pak, Asia, Turkey, Syria, Iraq, UAE and many other countries follow the Hanafi Madhab. Muslims in Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Yemen, Egypt and parts of Syria generally follow the Shafi’i school. The Maliki Madhab is mostly practised in North African countries, such as Tunisia, Algeria, Mauritania, Morocco, Libya and others. The Hanbalis can be found in parts of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Syria and other countries. The Ash’ari and Maturudi Aqidahs are also quite widespread in these Muslim lands. Therefore, it is totally incorrect to assume that Sunni Muslims are in the minority; rather, as they have always been, they remain the mainstream and the majority.

Sayyiduna Abd Allah ibn Umar (Allah be pleased with him) narrates that the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace) said: “Verily Allah does not gather my Ummah-or he said, the Ummah of the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace)-upon deviation, and Allah's hand (assistance, protection and mercy) is over the group, and whoever diverges from them diverges to hellfire.” (Sunan Tirmidhi, no. 2167)

Therefore, rest assured that the path you have chosen is the right one, and that which the majority of the Muslims follow. In England there are many Sunni scholars, in fact the majority of the Masjids and Imams are almost all Sunni. You may have to move out from the narrow and limited circle that you find yourself in.

As for the disputes among Muslims who all follow the same traditional Sunni way, follow a Madhhab and the Maturudi Aqida, is surely something that is very unfortunate. Such people should be explained in a nice and gentle manner to leave these petty issues (regarding which one will not be asked on the Day of Judgment) to one side and concentrate more on the basics of Islam. You must also avoid falling into such arguments, and having such people around should never deter you from following the Sunni way.

Regarding your final point on the Salafis controlling the Haramayn, it should be kept in mind that controlling the sacred lands is not in any way a proof for one being on the true path. There are numerous examples in history where people on falsehood had control on such sacred lands.

Until not too long ago, the holy lands were controlled by Sunni scholars. The sacred Mosques of Makkah al-Mukarrama and Madina al-Munawwara used to witness four congregations for each Salat in accordance with the four traditional Sunni schools of Islamic law. Many great scholars lived and taught there for centuries. It was only until when Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab and his followers imposed their ideologies in these lands.

What is relevant that, there are great Sunni scholars till this day living in these lands despite the tight vigilance of the government and Salafi/Wahhabi oriented circles. Scholars such as, Shaykh Muhammad al-Awwama (a great Syrian Hanafi scholar), Shaykh Habib Zayn (a great Yemeni Shafi’i and Tasawwuf scholar), Shaykh Abd al-Hafidh al-Makki (a great Hanafi and Sufi scholar originally from Pakistan), Sayyidi Alawi al-Maliki (in Makka al-Mukarrama) and others reside and teach in these blessed lands.

One of the great Hanafi and Hadith scholars from India, Imam Muhammad Zakariyya al-Khandahlawi (Allah have mercy on him) spent many years of his later life in Madina al-Munawwara. His students and disciples number in many. My own personal Shaykh, Mawlana Shaykh Muhammad Yusuf Mutala (Allah preserve him) was one of his main students. I personally heard from my Shaykh that, in the late seventies, the current head of the Imams of Haram in Makkah, Shaykh Muhammad ibn Abd Allah al-Subayl (who was also an Imam then) would regularly come and attend the Dhikr and Tasawwuf gatherings of Shaykh Muhammad Zakariyya.

Finally, remember the Hadith of the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace). Sayyiduna Abd Allah ibn Umar (Allah be pleased with him) narrates that the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace) said: “O Allah! Bless our Sham and our Yemen. They (Sahaba) said: “Our Najd as well.” The Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace) again said: “O Allah! Bless our Sham and our Yemen. They said again, “Our Najd as well.” The Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace) said: “There, will appear earthquakes and tribulations, and from there will rise the horn of Shaytan.” (Sahih al-Bukhari, no. 990)

Ahmad ibn `Abd al-Halim ibn `Abd Allah ibn Abi al-Qasim ibn Taymiyya, Taqi al-Din Abu al-`Abbas ibn Shihab al-Din ibn Majd al-Din al-Harrani al-Dimashqi al-Hanbali (661-728). The most influential scholar of the late Hanbali school, praised by the hadith master Salah al-Din al-`Ala'i as "Our shaykh, master, and imam between us and Allah Almighty, the master of verification, the wayfarer of the best path, the owner of the multifarious merits and overpowering proofs which all hosts agree are impossible to enumerate, the Shaykh, the Imam and faithful servant of his Lord, the doctor in the Religion, the Ocean, the light-giving Pole of spirituality, the leader of imams, the blessing of the Community, the sign-post of the people of knowledge, the inheritor of Prophets, the last of those capable of independent legal reasoning, the most unique of the scholars of the Religion, Shaykh al-Islam..."

A student of Ibn `Abd al-Da'im, al-Qasim al-Irbili, Ibn `Allan, Ibn Abi `Amr al-Fakhr, Ibn Taymiyya mostly read by himself until he achieved great learning. He taught, authored books, gave formal legal opinions, and generally distinguished himself for his quick wit and photographic memory. Among his most brilliant students were Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, al-Dhahabi, Ibn Kathir, and Yusuf ibn `Abd al-Hadi. His opinions and manner created intense controversy both in his life and after his death, to the point that scholars were divided into those who loved him and those who did not. An illustration of this is the fact that the Shafi`i hadith master al-Mizzi did not call anyone else Shaykh al-Islam in his time besides Ibn Taymiyya; yet the Hanafi scholar `Ala' al-Din al-Bukhari issued a fatwa whereby anyone who called Ibn Taymiyya Shaykh al-Islam commited disbelief.1 In Bayan Zaghl al-`Ilm al-Dhahabi states: "Ibn Taymiyya was considered by his enemies to be a wicked Anti-Christ and disbeliever, while great numbers of the wise and the elite considered him an eminent, brilliant, and scholarly innovator (mubtadi` fadil muhaqqiq bari`)."2

First Incident of Tashbih

His first clash with the scholars occurred in 698 in Damascus when he was temporarily barred from teaching after he issued his Fatwa Hamawiyya. In this epistle he unambiguously attributes literal upward direction to Allah Almighty. He was refuted by his contemporary, the imam and mufti of Aleppo then Damascus Ibn Jahbal al-Kilabi (d. 733), in a lengthy reply which Taj al-Din al-Subki reproduced in full in his Tabaqat al-Shafi`iyya al-Kubra. Ibn Taymiyya then returned to his activities until he was summoned by the authorities again in 705 to answer for his `Aqida Wasitiyya. He spent the few following years in and out of jail or defending himself from various "abhorrent charges" according to Ibn Hajar.

Because he officially repented, his life was spared, although at one point it was officially announced in Damascus that "Whoever follows the beliefs of Ibn Taymiyya, his life and property are licit for seizure." These events instigated great dissension among the scholars in Damascus and Cairo as detailed in Imam Taqi al-Din al-Husni's Daf` Shubah Man Shabbaha wa Tamarrad wa Nasaba Dhalika ila al-Sayyid al-Jalil al-Imam Ahmad ("Repelling the Sophistries of the Rebel who Likens Allah to Creation, Then Attributes This Doctrine to Imam Ahmad").3

Ibn Taymiyya at various times declared himself a follower of the Shafi`i school - as did many Hanbalis in Damascus - and an Ash`ari. Ibn Hajar wrote in al-Durar al-Kamina:
An investigation [of his views] was conducted with several scholars [in Cairo] and a written statement was drawn in which he said: "I am Ash`ari." His handwriting is found with what he wrote verbatim, namely: "I believe that the Qur'an is a meaning which exists in Allah's Entity, and that it is an Attribute from the pre-eternal Attributes of His Entity, and that it is uncreated, and that it does not consist in the letter nor the voice, and that His saying: "The Merciful established Himself over the Throne" (20:4) is not taken according to its literal meaning (laysa `ala zahirihi), and I don't know in what consists its meaning, nay only Allah knows it, and one speaks of His 'descent' in the same way as one speaks of His 'establishment.'"

It was written by Ahmad ibn Taymiyya and they witnessed over him that he had repented of his own free will from all that contravened the above. This took place on the 25th of Rabi` al-Awwal 707 and it was witnessed by a huge array of scholars and others.4
The Hanbali scholar Najm al-Din Sulayman ibn `Abd al-Qawi al-Tufi said:5

He used to bring up in one hour from the Book, the Sunna, the Arabic language, and philosophical speculation, material which no-one could bring up even in many sessions, as if these sciences were before his very eyes and he was picking and choosing from them at will. A time came when his companions took to over-praising him and this drove him to be satisfied with himself until he became conceited before his fellow human beings. He became convinced that he was a scholar capable of independent reasoning (mujtahid). Henceforth he began to answer each and every scholar great and small, past and recent, until he went all the way back to `Umar (r) and faulted him in some matter. This reached the ears of the Shaykh Ibrahim al-Raqi who reprimanded him.

Ibn Taymiyya went to see him, apologized, and asked for forgiveness. He also spoke against `Ali (r) and said: "He made mistakes in seventeen different matters."... Because of his fanatic support of the Hanbali school he would attack Ash'aris until he started to insult al-Ghazzali, at which point some people opposed him and would almost kill him.... They ascertained that he had blurted out certain words, concerning doctrine, which came out of his mouth in the context of his sermons and legal pronouncements, and they mentioned that he had cited the tradition of Allah's descent (to the nearest heaven), then climbed down two steps from the minbar and said: "Just like this descent of mine" and so was categorized as an anthropomorphist. They also cited his refutation of whoever uses the Prophet Allah bless and greet him -- as a means or seeks help from him (aw istaghatha).... People were divided into parties because of him. Some considered him an anthropomorphist because of what he mentioned in al-`Aqida al-Hamawiyya and al-`Aqida al-Wasitiyya and other books of his, to the effect that the hand, foot, shin, and face are litteral attributes of Allah and that He is established upon the Throne with His Essence.

It was said to him that were this the case He would necessarily be subject to spatial confinement (al-tahayyuz) and divisibility (al-inqisam). He replied: "I do not concede that spatial confinement and divisibility are (necessarily) properties of bodies," whereupon it was adduced against him (ulzima) that he held Allah's Essence to be subject to spatial confinement. Others considered him a heretic (zindiq) due to his saying that the Prophet -- Allah bless and greet him -- is not to be sought for help and the fact that this amounted to diminishing and impeding the establishing of the greatness of the Prophet -- Allah bless and greet him - Others considered him a dissimulator (munafiq) because of what he said about `Ali:. namely, that he had been forsaken everywhere he went, had repeatedly tried to acquire the caliphate and never attained it, fought out of lust for power rather than religion, and said that "he loved authority while `Uthman loved money." He would say that Abu Bakr had declared Islam in his old age, fully aware of what he said, while `Ali had declared Islam as a boy, and the boy's Islam is not considered sound upon his mere word.... In sum he said ugly things such as these, and it was said against him that he was a hypocrite, in view of the Prophet's -- Allah bless and greet him -- saying (to `Ali): "None but a hypocrite has hatred for you."6

Another reason why Ibn Taymiyya was opposed was his criticism of Sufis, particularly Shaykh Muhyi al-Din Ibn `Arabi, although he described himself, in his letter to Abu al-Fath Nasr al-Munayji, as a former admirer of the Shaykh al-Akbar: I was one of those who, previously, used to hold the best opinion of Ibn `Arabi and extol his praise, because of the benefits I saw in his books, such as what he said in many of his books, for example: al-Futuhat, al-Kanh, al-Muhkam al-Marbut, al-Durra al-Fakhira, Matali` al-Nujum, and other such works.7

According to Ibn `Abd al-Hadi, Ibn Taymiyya also declared himself a follower of several Sufi orders, among them the Qadiri path of Shaykh `Abd al-Qadir al-Gilani.8 In al-Mas'ala al-Tabriziyya Ibn Taymiyya declares: "Labistu al-khirqa al-mubaraka li al-Shaykh `Abd al-Qadir wa bayni wa baynahu ithnan - I wore the blessed Sufi cloak of `Abd al-Qadir, there being between him and me two shaykhs."9

Further Heresy

Further charges of heresy were brought against Ibn Taymiyya for his assertion that a divorce pronounced in innovative fashion does not take effect, against the consensus of the scholars which stipulated that it does, though innovative. After spending the years 719-721 in jail, he was jailed again in 726 until his death two years leater for declaring that one who travels to visit the Prophet commits innovation. His burial was attended by about 50,000 people.

His student al-Dhahabi praised him lavishly as "the brilliant shaykh, imam, erudite scholar, censor, jurist, mujtahid, and commentator of the Qur'an," but acknowledged that Ibn Taymiyya's disparaging manners alienated even his admirers. For example, the grammarian Abu Hayyan praised Ibn Taymiyya until he found out that he believed himself a greater expert in the Arabic language than Sibawayh, whereupon he disassociated himself from his previous praise. Other former admirers turned critics were the qadi al-Zamalkani and al-Dhahabi himself, in whose al-Nasiha al-Dhahabiyya he addresses Ibn Taymiyya with the words: "When will you stop criticizing the scholars and finding fault with the people?"
Dr. al-Buti pointed out that although Ibn Taymiyya blamed al-Ghazzali and other Ash`ari scholars for involving themselves in philosophical or dialectical disputations, yet he went much further than most into kalam and philosophy.

This is shown by his books in kalam and philosophy, most notably by his positions in al-Radd `ala al-Mantiqiyyin ("Against the Logicians") on the "generic beginninglessness" of created matters and Aristotelian causality (al-`illa al-aristiyya).10 Al-Dhahabi alluded to this in his epistle to Ibn Taymiyya: "When will you stop investigating the poisoned minutiae of philosophical disbelief, so that we have to refute them with our minds? You have swallowed the poisons of the philosophers and their treatises, not once, but several times!"11

Ibn Hajar al-Haytami on Ibn Taymiyya
Al-Haytami wrote in his Fatawa Hadithiyya:

Ibn Taymiyya is a servant which Allah forsook, misguided, blinded, deafened, and debased. That is the declaration of the imams who have exposed the corruption of his positions and the mendacity of his sayings. Whoever wishes to pursue this must read the words of the mujtahid imam Abu al-Hasan (Taqi al-Din) al-Subki, of his son Taj al-Din Subki, of the Imam al-`Izz ibn Jama`a and others of the Shafi`i, Maliki, and Hanafi shaykhs... It must be considered that he is a misguided and misguiding innovator (mubtadi` dall mudill) and an ignorant who brought evil (jahilun ghalun) whom Allah treated with His justice. May He protect us from the likes of his path, doctrine, and actions!... Know that he has differed from people on questions about which Taj al-Din Ibn al-Subki and others warned us.

Among the things Ibn Taymiyya said which violate the scholarly consensus are:
1. That whoso violates the consensus commits neither disbelief (kufr) nor grave transgression (fisq);
2. That our Lord is subject to created events (mahallun li al-hawadith) - glorified, exalted, and sanctified is He far above what the depraved ascribe to Him!
3. That He is complex or made of parts (murakkab), His Entity standing in need similarly to the way the whole stands in need of the parts, elevated is He and sanctified above that!
4. That the Qur'an is created in Allah's Entity (muhdath fi dhatillah), elevated is He above that!

5. That the world is of a pre-eternal nature and exists with Allah since pre-eternity as an "ever-abiding created object" (makhluqan da'iman), thus making it necessarily existent in His Entity (mujaban bi al-dhat) and not acting deliberately[GH1] (la fa`ilan bi al-ikhtyar), elevated is He above that!12

6. His suggestions of Allah's corporeality, direction, displacement, (al-jismiyya wa al-jiha wa al-intiqal), and that He fits the size of the Throne, being neither bigger nor smaller, exalted is He from such a hideous invention and wide-open disbelief, and may He forsake all his followers, and may all his beliefs be scattered and lost!

7. His saying that the fire shall go out (al-nar tafni),13
8. And that Prophets are not sinless (al-anbiya' ghayr ma`sumin),
9. and that the Prophet -- Allah bless and greet him -- has no special status before Allah (la jaha lahu) and must not be used as a means (la yutawassalu bihi),14
10. and that the undertaking of travel (al-safar) to the Prophet -- Allah bless and greet him - in order to perform his visitation is a sin, for which it is unlawful to shorten the prayers,15 and that it is forbidden to ask for his intercession in view of the Day of Need,

11. and that the words (alfaz) of the Torah and the Gospel were not substituted, but their meanings (ma`ani) were. Some said: "Whoever looks at his books does not attribute to him most of these positions, except that whereby he holds the view that Allah has a direction, and that he authored a book to establish this, and forces the proof upon the people who follow this school of thought that they are believers in Allah's corporeality (jismiyya), dimensionality (muhadhat), and settledness (istiqrar)." That is, it may be that at times he used to assert these proofs and that they were consequently attributed to him in particular. But whoever attributed this to him from among the imams of Islam upon whose greatness, leadership, religion, trustworthiness, fairness, acceptance, insight, and meticulousness there is agreement - then they do not say anything except what has been duly established with added precautions and repeated inquiry. This is especially true when a Muslim is attributed a view which necessitates his disbelief, apostasy, misguidance, and execution. Therefore if it is true of him that he is a disbeliever and an innovator, then Allah will deal with him with His justice, and other than that He will forgive us and him.

Imam al-Kawthari on Ibn Taymiyya

Imam Muhammad Zahid al-Kawthari stated in strong terms that Ibn Taymiyya's position on Allah's attributes is tantamount to disbelief and apostasy because it reduces Allah to a corporeal body. He states in his Maqalat: In al-Ta'sis fi Radd Asas al-Taqdis ("The Laying of the Foundation: A Refutation of al-Razi's "The Foundation of Allah's Sanctification") Ibn Taymiyya says: "Al-`arsh (the throne) in language means al-sarir (elevated seat or couch), so named with respect to what is on top of it, just as the roof is so named with respect to what is under it. Therefore, if the Qur'an attributes a throne to Allah, it is then known that this throne is, with respect to Allah, like the elevated seat is with respect to other than Allah. This makes it necessarily true that He is on top of the throne." So then the throne is, for Ibn Taymiyya, Allah's seat (maq`ad)- Exalted is He from such a notion!

He also says: "It is well-known that the Book, the Sunna, and the Consensus nowhere say that all bodies (ajsam) are created, and nowhere say that Allah Himself is not a body. None of the imams of the Muslims ever said such a thing. Therefore if I also choose not to say it, it does not expel me from religion nor from Shari`a." These words are complete impudence. What did he do with all the verses declaring Allah to be far removed from anything like unto Him? Does he expect that the idiocy that every single idiot can come up with be addressed with a specific text? Is it not enough that Allah the Exalted said: "There is nothing whatsoever like Him" (42:11)? Or does he consider it permissible for someone to say: Allah eats this, chews that, and tastes the other thing, just because no text mentions the opposite? This is disbelief laid bare and pure anthropomorphism.

In another passage of the same book he says: "You [Ash`aris] say that He is neither a body, nor an atom (jawhar), nor spatially bounded (mutahayyiz), and that He has no direction, and that He cannot be pointed to as an object of sensory perception, and that nothing of Him can be considered distinct from Him. You have asserted this on the grounds that Allah is neither divisible nor made of parts and that He has neither limit (hadd) nor end (ghaya), with your view thereby to forbid one to say that He has any limit or measure (qadr), or that He even has a dimension that is unlimited. But how do you allow yourselves to do this without evidence from the Book and the Sunna?"16 The reader's intelligence suffices to comment on these heretical statements. Can you imagine for an apostate to be more brazen than this, right in the midst of a Muslim society?

In another place of the same book he says: "It is obligatorily known that Allah did not mean by the name of "the One" (al-Wahid) the negation of the Attributes." He is here alluding to all that entails His "coming" to a place and the like. He continues: "Nor did He mean by it the negation that He can be perceived with the senses, nor the denial of limit and dimension and all such interpretations which were innovated by the Jahmiyya and their followers. Negation or denial of the above is not found in the Book nor the Sunna." And this is on an equal footing with what came before with regard to pure anthropomorphism and plain apostasy.

In another book of his, Muwafaqa al-Ma`qul, which is in the margin of his Minhaj, Ibn Taymiyya asserts that things occur newly in relation to Allah and that He has a direction according to two kinds of conjecture.17 And you know, O reader, what the Imams say concerning him who deliberately and intently establishes that Allah has a direction, unless his saying such a thing is a slip of the tongue or a slip of the pen. Then there is his establishing that the concept of movement applies to Allah, along with all the others who establish such a thing; his denial that there is an eternal sojourn in hellfire has filled creation; and his doctrine of "generic beginninglessness" (al-qidam al-naw`i).18

Ibn Taymiyya's Two Tawhids

Also among Ibn Taymiyya's controversies in kalam was his division of tawhid into two types: tawhid al-rububiyya and tawhid al-uluhiyya, respectively, Oneness of Lordship and Oneness of Godhead.19 The first, he said, consisted in the acknowledgment of Allah as the Creator of all, a belief shared by believers and non-believers alike. The second was the affirmation of Allah as the one true deity and only object of worship, a belief exclusive to believers. His natural conclusion was that "whoever does not know tawhid al-uluhiyya, his knowledge of tawhid al-rububiyya is not taken into account because the idolaters also had such knowledge." He then compared the scholars of kalam to the Arab idol-worshippers who accepted tawhid al-rububiyya but ignored tawhid al-uluhiyya. This dialectic was adopted by Ibn Abi al-`Izz in his commentary on al-Tahawi's `Aqida.20

Abu Hamid Ibn Marzuq wrote:
Tawhid al-rububiyya and tawhid al-uluhiyya were invented by Ibn Taymiyya who claimed that all Muslims among the mutakallimun worshipped other than Allah due to their ignorance of tawhid al-uluhiyya; he claimed that the only tawhid they knew was tawhid al-rububiyya. The latter consists in affirming that Allah is the Creator of all things, as, he says, the polytheists conceded. He then declared all Muslims to be unbelievers. Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab imitated him in this, and others imitated Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhab. The late erudite scholar al-Sayyid Ahmad ibn Zayni Dahlan (d. 1304) looked into this matter in a small section of his treatise al-Durar al-Saniyya fi al-Radd `ala al-Wahhabiyya ("The Resplendent Pearls in Refuting the Wahhabis"). So did the savant al-Shaykh Ibrahim al-Samnudi al-Mansuri (d. 1314) who spoke excellently in his book Sa`ada al-Darayn fi al-Radd `ala al-Firqatayn al-Wahhabiyya wa al-Zahiriyya ("The Bliss of the Two Abodes in the Refutation of the Two Sects: Wahhabis and Zahiris"). The late erudite scholar al-Shaykh Salama al-`Azzami (d. 1376) also wrote valuable words about it in his book al-Barahin al-Sati`a fi Radd Ba`d al-Bida` al-Sha'i`a ("The Radiant Proofs in Refuting Some Widespread Innovations")...

Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal, never said that tawhid consisted in two parts, one being tawhid al-rububiyya and the other tawhid al-uluhiyya. Nor did he ever say that "whoever does not know tawhid al-uluhiyya, his knowledge of tawhid al-rububiyya is not taken into account because the idolaters also had such knowledge." None of the followers of the Followers None of the Successors , None of the Companions of the Prophet -- Allah bless and greet him -- ever said that tawhid consisted in two parts, one being tawhid al-rububiyya and the other tawhid al-uluhiyya, nor did any of them ever say that "whoever does not know tawhid al-uluhiyya, his knowledge of tawhid al-rububiyya is not taken into account because the idolaters also had such knowledge."... Nowhere in the extensive Sunna of the Prophet -- Allah bless and greet him -- ... is it related that the Prophet -- Allah bless and greet him -- ever said or ever taught his Companions that tawhid consists in two parts, one being tawhid al-rububiyya and the other tawhid al-uluhiyya, nor that "whoever does not know tawhid al-uluhiyya, his knowledge of tawhid al-rububiyya is not taken into account because the idolaters also had such knowledge."

If mankind and jinn joined together to establish that the Prophet, Allah bless and greet him , ever said such a thing, even with an inauthentic chain of transmission, they would not succeed. The books of the Sunna of the Prophet, Allah bless and greet him, overflow with the fact that the call of the Prophet, Allah bless and greet him, to the people unto Allah was in order that they witness that there is no God except Allah alone and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, and in order that they repudiate idol-worship. One of the most famous illustrations of this is the narration of Mu`adh ibn Jabal when the Prophet -- Allah bless and greet him -- sent him to Yemen and said to him: "Invite them to the testimony that there is no God but Allah and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah...." And it is narrated in five of the six books of authentic traditions, and Ibn Hibban declared it sound, that a beduin Arab reported the sighting of the new moon to the Prophet -- Allah bless and greet him -- and the latter ordered the people to fast without asking this man other than to confirm his testimony of faith.

According to this drivel of Ibn Taymiyya, it would have been necessary for the Prophet -- Allah bless and greet him -- to call all people to the tawhid al-uluhiyya of which they were ignorant - since tawhid al-rububiyya they knew already - and he should have said to Mu`adh: "Invite them to tawhid al-uluhiyya"; and he should have asked the beduin who had sighted the new moon of Ramadan: "Do you know tawhid al-uluhiyya?"

Finally, in His precious Book which falsehood cannot approach whether from the front or from the back, Allah never ordered tawhid al-uluhiyya to His servants, nor did He ever say that "whoever does not know this tawhid, his knowledge of tawhid al-rububiyya is not taken into account."21

Ibn Taymiyya's method in debate was to provide a barrage of quotes and citations in support of his positions. In the process he often mentioned reports or stated positions which, upon closer examination, are dubious either from the viewpoint of transmission or from that of doctrine. For example:
1. His report of Ibn Batta's narration whereby Hammad ibn Zayd was asked by a man: "Our Lord descends to the heaven of the earth - does that mean that he removes Himself from one place to another place? (yatahawwalu min makan ila makan?)" Hammad replied: "He Himself is in His place, and He comes near His creation in the way that He likes (huwa fi makanihi yaqrabu min khalqihi kayfa sha')."22
2. His report from Ishaq ibn Rahawayh's words to the Emir `Abd Allah ibn Tahir: "He is able to descend without the Throne being vacant of Him" (yaqdiru an yanzila min ghayri an yakhlua al-`arshu minhu).23
3. His report from Abu `Umar al-Talmanki's book al-Wusul ila Ma`rifa al-Usul: "Ahl al-Sunna wa al-Jama`a are in agreement (muttafiqun) that Allah established Himself in person (bi dhatihi) on the Throne."24 Note that Ibn Taymiyya quotes inaccurately, as al-Dhahabi quotes from the same book the following passage: "The Muslims of Ahl al-Sunna wa al-Jama`a have reached consensus (ajma`[u]) that Allah is above the heavens in person (bi dhatihi) and is established over His Throne in the mode that He pleases (kayfa sha')."25 Both assertions are of course false as no such consensus exists, and the position of Ahl al-Sunna is that whoever attributes direction to Allah commits apostasy.

4. His statements: "Allah's elevation over the throne is literal, and the servant's elevation over the ship is literal" (lillahi ta`ala istiwa'un `ala `arshihi haqiqatan wa li al-`abdi istiwa'un `ala al-fulki haqiqatan).26 "Allah is with us literally, and He is above His throne literally (Allahu ma`ana haqiqatan wa huwa fawqa al-`arshi haqiqatan). Allah is with His creation literally and He is above His Throne literally (Allahu ma`a khalqihi haqiqatan wa huwa fawqa al-`arshi haqiqatan)."27

The above statements corroborate Ibn Hajar's reports whereby he once climbed down the minbar in purported illustration of Allah's descent to the nearest heaven.
The writings and notoriety of Ibn Taymiyya were by and large forgotten until the "Salafi" movement revived them through the publishing efforts of the Wahabi Gulf states from the 1930s to our day.

13.This doctrine was refuted by Muhammad ibn Isma`il al-San`ani in his Risala Sharifa fi ma Yata`allaqu bi Kam al-Baqi Min `Umr al-Dunya? (Precious Treatise Concerning the Remaining Age of the World") ed. al-Wasabi al-Mathani. (San`a': Maktaba Dar al-Quds, 1992).
13. This doctrine was refuted by Muhammad ibn Isma`il al-San`ani in his Raf` al-Astar li-Ibtal Adilla al-Qa'ilin bi-Fana al-Nar ("Exposing the Nullity of the Proofs of Those Who Claim That the Fire Shall Pass Away"), ed. Albani (Beirut: al-Maktab al-Islami, 1984).
14. This is explicitly contradicted by the vast majority of scholars, including Ibn Taymiyya's own students Ibn al-Qayyim (cf. al-Nuniyya, section on tawassul) and al-Dhahabi, as well as al-Shawkani and countless others. See the volume on tawassul in Shaykh Hisham Kabbani's Encyclopedia of Islamic Doctrine.

15. Ibn Hajar says in Fath al-Bari about Ibn Taymiyya's prohibition to travel in order to visit the Prophet: "This is one of the ugliest matters ever reported from Ibn Taymiyya." In his notes on Fath al-Bari (1989 ed. 3:66) the late "Salafi" scholar Bin Baz comments: "This was not an ugly thing but a correct thing for Ibn Taymiyya to say."
16. Ibn Taymiyya, al-Ta'sis (1:101). Compare to Imam Malik's statement: "He is neither ascribed a limit nor likened with anything" (lâ yuhaddad wa lâ yushabbah). Ibn al-`Arabi said after citing it in Ahkam al-Qur'an (4:1740): "This is a pinnacle of tawhîd in which no Muslim preceded Malik."

23. Ibn Taymiyya, Majmu`a al-Fatawa (5:376-377). Also narrated by al-Dhahabi with a sound chain according to al-Albani in Mukhtasar al-`Uluw (p. 192 #235). However, al-Bayhaqi in al-Asma' wa al-Sifat (al-Asma' wa al-Sifat, ed. Kawthari p. 451-452; al-Asma' wa al-Sifat, Hashidi ed. 2:375-377 #950-953) narrates the reports of Ishaq's encounter with the Emir `Abd Allah ibn Tahir with five chains (three of them sound according to al-Hashidi), none of which mentioning the words "without the Throne being vacant of Him."

This apparent interpolation is nevertheless the foundation of Ibn Taymiyya's position in Sharh Hadith al-Nuzul (p. 42-59) that Allah descends in person yet remains above the Throne in person. That position has been characterized by Imam Abu Zahra as a dual assertion of Allah's aboveness and belowness on the part of Ibn Taymiyya (see n. 456 and 711), although strenuously denied by Ibn Taymiyya himself in Minhaj al-Sunna (2:248) and by al-Albani who defends the latter against Abu Zahra's conclusion in his introduction to Mukhtasar al-`Uluw (p. 40-41, 192-193).
24. Ibid. (5:189).
25. Al-Dhahabi, Mukhtasar al-`Uluw (p. 264 #321). Al-Dhahabi criticizes these assertions: see our May 1999 post entitled "Allah is now as He ever was," toward the end.
26. Ibn Taymiyya, Majmu`a al-Fatawa (5:199)
27. Ibid. (5:103). Allah's Blessings and Peace on the Prophet, his Family, and all his Companions. Hizb ut-Tahrir: An Emerging Threat to U.S. Interests in Central Asia
by Ariel Cohen, Ph.D. This article originally appeared in the Heritage Foundation Backgrounder #1656, published May 30, 2003

HIZBUT TAHRIR

Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami (Islamic Party of Liberation) is an emerging threat to American interests in Central and South Asia and the Middle East. It is a clandestine, cadre-operated, radical Islamist political organization that operates in 40 countries around the world, with headquarters apparently in London. Its proclaimed goal is jihad against America and the overthrow of existing political regimes and their replacement with a Caliphate (Khilafah in Arabic), a theocratic dictatorship based on the Shari'a (religious Islamic law). The model for Hizb is the "righteous" Caliphate, a militaristic Islamic state that existed in the 7th and 8th centuries under Mohammad and his first four successors, known as the "righteous Caliphs."

The September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks taught the United States a painful lesson--that it must be alert to emerging threats, including terrorism and other destabilizing activities against its military assets, citizens, and allies. Some of these emerging threats, combined with the actions of terrorist jihadi organizations, such as al-Qaeda, may also generate political instability in key geographic areas and threaten friendly regimes. In Central Asia, the security situation has deteriorated because the war against Saddam Hussein's regime has intensified the resolve of anti-American forces already active in the region.1

The United States has important national security interests at stake in Central Asia, including access to the military bases used to support operations in Afghanistan, preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and technologies for their production, and securing access to natural resources, including oil and gas. The U.S. is also committed to spreading democracy, promoting market reforms, and improving human rights standards in the vast heartland of Eurasia.

Therefore, to prevent Hizb ut-Tahrir from destabilizing Central Asia and other areas, the U.S. should expand intelligence collection on Hizb. The U.S. should encourage Central Asian governments to pursue reforms that will expand civil society and diminish the alienation on which Hizb and fundamentalist Islamist movements are preying. Specifically, the U.S. should condition security assistance on economic reform, encourage democracy and popular participation, discredit radical Islamist movements, and support religious and political moderation and pluralism.

A MODERN FUNDAMENTALIST MOVEMENT

Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami is an emerging threat to American interests and the countries in which it operates. It has 5,000-10,000 hard-core members, and many more supporters in former Soviet Central Asia (e.g., Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan), and is expanding its operations to oil-rich Kazakhstan. Over 10,000 members are active in Pakistan, Syria, Turkey, and Indonesia.2 At least 500 are already behind bars in Uzbekistan alone, and hundreds are in custody in the Middle East.3 By breeding violent anti-American attitudes, attempting to overthrow existing regimes, and preparing cadres for more radical Islamist organizations, Hizb poses a threat to U.S. interests in Central Asia and elsewhere in the Islamic world where moderate regimes are found.

Sheikh Taqiuddin an-Nabhani al Falastini, the founder of Hizb, has written that every Muslim should strive to establish a Caliphate and that this religious imperative (fard) upon the Muslim nation (Umma) is so strong that Mohammad's close allies delayed burying his body until a new Caliph was appointed and the Caliphate established.4 The Caliphate would be led by a Caliph: a supreme, pious leader who would combine religious and political power.5

A Caliph, an-Nabhani believes, is a substitute for Mohammad as both political and religious leader. The Caliph would appoint an Amir, or military leader, who would declare jihad and wage war against all non-believers, including the United States. According to Hizb's political vision, such an entity, if established, would not recognize existing national, regional, tribal, or clan differences and would include all Muslims.
An-Nabhani has drafted the constitution of this future Caliphate. It is not the constitution of a democratic state. The Caliph would be appointed by acclamation by "prominent men," with male voters casting a vote of approval. The ruler would not be directly accountable to the people, and there would be no checks or balances between branches of government. Succession would be by designation of the Caliph or acclamation of the oligarchy.

Thus, Hizb explicitly rejects democracy. In fact, one of an-Nabhani's books is titled Democracy: The Law of Infidels.6 Yet some regional observers have called for the legitimization of Hizb and its integration into the existing political model.7 In doing so, they ignore the obvious--Hizb's goal is to smash the existing state apparatus, not to become a player within it.

Radical Islamic Roots

Since its inception in 1952 in Jordanian-occupied East Jerusalem, Hizb has gained tens of thousands of followers from London to Lahore.8 From its beginning, an-Nabhani's organization was influenced by the rabid anti-Semitism propagated by Sheikh Hajj Amin Al-Housseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, who was a major Nazi war collaborator.9
An-Nabhani, who was serving at the time on the Islamic appellate court in Jerusalem, was an associate and contemporary of Hajj Amin's.10 He also drew on the organizational principles of Marxism-Leninism, which were quite well-known among the middle- and upper-class Arabs in British Mandate Palestine. Khaled Hassan, one of the founders of the Fatah faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization, was also among the founders of Hizb ut-Tahrir, as was Sheikh Asaad Tahmimi, who became Islamic Jihad's spiritual leader.11 Hizb supported the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1991 and backs the Islamic Salvation Front of Algeria, a radical movement on the U.S. State Department's terrorism list.12

An-Nabhani was also member of the radical Islamic Brotherhood (Al Ihwan al-Muslimeen), a secretive international fundamentalist organization founded in Egypt in 1928, which spread throughout the Islamic world and preaches the establishment of a Caliphate. He joined the Brotherhood while studying in Cairo's Al-Azhar University but later left the Brotherhood because he considered it too soft.13 It is likely that Hizb was supported initially by the Saudi-based radical Islamist Wahhabi movement, although the extent to which that support continues today is unclear.14

A SHADOW GLOBAL ORGANIZATION

Hizb ut-Tahrir's spread around the globe, in Western Europe and often in authoritarian states with strong secret police organizations, is impressive. It could be accomplished only by applying 20th century totalitarian political "technology" melded with Islamic notions of the 7th and 8th centuries, as interpreted by medieval Islamic scholars. The genius of Hizb founder an-Nabhani was marrying Orthodox Islamist ideology to Leninist strategy and tactics.

The Leninist Model

Hizb ut-Tahrir is a totalitarian organization, akin to a disciplined Marxist-Leninist party, in which internal dissent is neither encouraged nor tolerated. Because its goal is global revolution, a leading Islamic scholar has compared it to the Trotskyite wing of the international communist movement.15 Its candidate members become well-versed in party literature during a two-year indoctrination course in a study circle, supervised by a party member. Only when a member "matures in Party culture," "adopts the thoughts and opinions of the party," and "melts with the Party" can he or she become a full-fledged member.16 Women are organized in cells supervised by a female cadre or a male relative. After joining the party, the new recruit may be requested (or ordered) to relocate to start a new cell.

When a critical mass of cells is achieved, according to its doctrine, Hizb may move to take over a country in preparation for the establishment of the Caliphate. Such a takeover would likely be bloody and violent. Moreover, its strategy and tactics show that, while the party is currently circumspect in preaching violence, it will justify its use--just as Lenin and the Bolsheviks did--when a critical mass is achieved.17

Hizb's platform and actions fit in with "Islamist globalization"--an alternative mode of globalization based on radical Islam. This ideology poses a direct challenge to the Western model of a secular, market-driven, tolerant, multicultural globalization.18
Where radicalization has taken hold in the Islamic world, Hizb has gained new supporters in droves. It operates clandestinely in over 40 countries around the world, with members organized in cells of five to eight members each. Only a cell commander knows the next level of leadership, ensuring operational security. "Representatives" in Great Britain and Pakistan claim to speak for the organization but have no official address or legal office. Leadership for large regions (e.g., the former Soviet Union), countries, and local areas is kept secret.

Hizb's primary characteristics include the fiery rhetoric of jihad, secret cells and operations, murky funding sources, rejection of existing political regimes, rapid transnational growth, and outlook and goals that are shared with al-Qaeda and other organizations of the global jihadi movement.

Anti-Americanism

Hizb has called for a jihad against the U.S., its allies, and moderate Muslim states. The purpose of the jihad is "to find and kill the Kufar (non-believers)," in fact rejecting the Islamic notion of Greater Jihad against one's own as a sin.19
In documents drafted before 9/11, Hizb leaders accused the United States of imposing hegemony on the world. After 9/11, Hizb claimed that the U.S. had declared war against the global Muslim community (Umma), had established an international alliance under the "pretext" of fighting terrorism, and was reinforcing its grip on the countries of Central Asia. Hizb further claimed that the U.S. accused Osama bin Laden of being responsible for the 9/11 attacks "without any evidence or proof."

The party attempted to use its influence by calling upon all Muslim governments to reject the U.S. appeal for cooperation in the war against terrorism.20 It called for expulsion of U.S. and Western citizens, including Western diplomats, from countries in which it will take power and shredding diplomatic treaties and agreements with Western governments. It further declared: Muslims! You are religiously obliged to reject this American question which takes you lightly and despises you. America does not have the sublime values that entitle it to tell you what to support and whom to fight against. You possess a divine mission. You are the ones to bring guidance and light to mankind. God described you with the following words: "You are the best people brought forth for the benefit of mankind. You enjoin good and forbid evil. And you believe in God."

As for Jihad...it is legal, in fact it is an obligation, it is the apex of Islamic ethics, as Almighty God says, "Keep in store for them whatever you are capable of, force and equipment with which you can frighten those who are enemies of God and enemies of yourselves...." God's Messenger (Mohammed) said, "Islam is the head, prayer is the backbone and Jihad is the perfection."

Muslims! The law of religion does not allow you to give to America what it is trying to impose upon you. You are not allowed to follow its orders or to provide it with any assistance whatsoever, no matter whether it be intelligence or facilities of using your territory, your air space or your territorial waters. It is not permissible to cede military bases to the Americans, nor it is allowed to coordinate any military activities with them or to collaborate with them. It is not allowed to enter into an alliance with them or to be loyal to them, because they are enemies of Islam and Muslims. God said, "Believers, Do not befriend my enemy and your enemy.... They have rejected the truth that has come to you."21

In a June 2001 article published in the party's journal, Hizb ideologists claim that all methods are justified in the struggle against the unbelievers, including murder. They specifically mention that a pilot's diving a plane hit by enemy fire into a crowd of unbelievers without bailing out with a parachute is a legitimate form of armed struggle. Hizb also demands that Muslims come to the support of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.22
According to Hizb, the main targets of jihad--in addition to moderate Muslim regimes such as Jordan, Pakistan, Egypt, and Uzbekistan--are America and the Jews.

[T]he war waged by America, the head of Kufr, and Britain and their allies from the Kafir states on Afghanistan is a crusade.... What America and Britain are doing is displaying their enmity for the Islamic Ummah. They are enemies; a state of war exists between them and all the Muslims that necessitates adopting an actual state of war as a basis for dealing with them according to the dictates of the Shari'ah rules. That position should be adopted with them and all those who ally themselves with them in their war against the Muslims.23

The war of America and her allies against Islam and the Muslims has shown the corrupt nature of her civilization and her colonial world-view. The War on Iraq...has demonstrated that America and her allies only strive to colonize and plunder the resources of the Islamic world, not to bring about justice and security.... America is intending to deceive you.... [S]he is inherently weak as her ideology is false and corrupt.... The time has come for Islam not just in Iraq but in this entire Ummah. It is time for the Islamic State (Khilafah) to lead the world and save the world from the crimes and oppression of the capitalist system.24

According to one of the Hizb Central Asian leaders, "we are very much opposed to the Jews and Israel.... Jews must leave Central Asia. The United States is the enemy of Islam with the Jews."25. Anti-Americanism, extremism, and preaching the violent overthrow of existing regimes make Hizb ut-Tahrir a prime suspect in the next wave of violent political action in Central Asia and other Muslim countries with relatively weak regimes, such as Pakistan and Indonesia.

Stages of Struggle, Jihad, and Violence

Hizb ut-Tahrir sees its struggle in parallel with the three stages that Mohammad experienced en route to the establishment of the Caliphate 1,400 years ago. These are spreading the word of God to the communities of Arabia; the flight from Mecca to Medina in order to establish the first Islamic community there; and, finally, the conquest of Mecca, jihad, and the establishment of the Caliphate.

Similarly, Hizb divides its strategy into three stages: "Production of people who believe in the idea and the method of the Party so that they form the Party group" (recruitment and agitation, establishment of cells); "Interaction with the Ummah; to let the Ummah embrace and carry Islam" (Islamization); and "Establishing government, implementing Islam generally and comprehensively, and carrying it as a message to the world" (revolutionary takeover and Jihad).26

In the past, members of Hizb participated in coups against pro-Western regimes in the Middle East, such as the failed 1968 officers' coup against King Hussein II of Jordan.27 Despite its authoritarian and highly disciplined cadre structure, Hizb claimed that members who participated in the coup did so in an "individual capacity." However, more recently, Hizb representatives, together with the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, participated in coordination meetings sponsored by al-Qaeda in the Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.

Numerous Middle Eastern countries and Germany, where Hizb is establishing links with the neo-Nazis, have taken steps to outlaw its activities. Moreover, the Party clearly states that Jihad has to continue till the Day of Judgment. So whenever disbelieving enemies attack an Islamic country it becomes compulsory on its Muslim citizens to repel the enemy. The members of Hizb ut-Tahrir in that country are part of the Muslims and it is obligatory upon them as [it] is upon other Muslims (not resident in that country) in their capacity as Muslims, to fight the enemy and expel them. Whenever there is a Muslim amir who declares jihad to enhance the Word of Allah and mobilizes the people to do that, the members of Hizb ut-Tahrir will respond in their capacity as Muslims in the country where the general call to arms was proclaimed.28

At this time, Hizb ut-Tahrir aims to seize power and supplant existing governments in Central Asia and elsewhere with an Islamist version based on Shari'a for the purpose of jihad against the West, which includes the following: "A struggle against Kufr (non-believer) states which have domination and influence over the Islamic countries. The challenge against colonialism in all its intellectual, political, economic, and military forms, involves exposing its plans, and revealing its conspiracies in order to deliver the Ummah from its control and to liberate it."29

"A struggle against the rulers in the Arab and Muslim countries by exposing them, taking them to task, acting to change them whenever they have denied the rights of the Ummah or neglected to perform their duty towards her, or ignored any of her affairs, and whenever they disagreed with the rules of Islam, and acting also to remove their regimes so as to establish the Islamic rule in its place."30

Hizb also seeks to penetrate state structures and convert government officials and military officers to its creed. Its platform openly states that "the Party started to seek the support of the influential people with two objectives in mind: So that it could manage to continue its daw'ah (Islamic appeal) while secure from affliction. To take over the rule in order to establish the Khilafah and apply Islam."31 Hizb has begun to penetrate the elites in Central Asia. Observers in the region have reported successes in penetrating the Parliament in Kyrgyzstan, the media in Kazakhstan, and customs offices in Uzbekistan.

WHAT IS AT STAKE

U.S. strategic interests in Central Asia include both access to the military bases needed for operations in Afghanistan and deterring the establishment of safe havens for terrorist organizations. The U.S. is seeking to prevent a country, a group of countries, or a transnational movement or organization from establishing hegemonic control in the region. This includes barring transnational Islamic fundamentalist organizations and drug cartels from emerging as ruling bodies or dominant regional power centers.

The U.S. must also prevent Central Asia from becoming an arsenal of dangerous weaponry and should prevent the development and production of weapons of mass destruction in the region, to preclude them from falling into the hands of rogue regimes or terrorists. Furthermore, the U.S. needs to ensure equal access to the energy resources of the region, primarily in the Caspian Sea area, and encourage development of the East-West transportation and economic corridors, also known as the Silk Road. Finally, the U.S. should encourage economic reform, expansion of civic space, democratization, and development of open society in the region.32

The secular regimes of Central Asia have little to no democratic legitimacy. Most of their rulers are Soviet-era communist party leaders. Almost no political space is left for secular opposition in these states. U.S. objectives are thus jeopardized not only by the authoritarian parties of radical Islamic revolution such as Hizb, but also by the authoritarian nature of these Central Asian regimes themselves, with their rampant corruption, declining living standards, poor delivery of public goods and services, and stagnant or declining economies. By governing so poorly and being intolerant and undemocratic, these regimes inadvertently breed religious extremism.33

In this environment, Hizb ut-Tahrir has captured a protest niche that otherwise would be occupied by a legitimate political opposition. Despite this, the U.S. government, along with the policy analysis and expert communities as well as governments in the region and around the world, has yet to attain a clear picture of Hizb's real size and strength and threat it poses.

WHAT THE U.S. DOES NOT KNOW

While reports of increasing Hizb activity abound, the extent to which local Hizb activities are part of a coordinated global plan is still unknown, just as the question of whether every region and country has an autonomous leadership that defines programs and sets deadlines remains unanswered. Hizb is rumored to be operating on a 13-year grand plan which, if it exists at all, is still unknown.

At its inception, Hizb likely had strong connections to Saudi Wahhabism, but it is unclear whether these links remain today. It is equally unclear whether Hizb has one or more state sponsors and, if so, who they are. At various times, experts have speculated that Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the Taliban regime in Afghanistan have been involved. The international intelligence community is also uncertain as to who finances the organization; who controls the funds internally; what the mode of financing is (e.g., regional self-sufficiency or centralized funding); and how funds are transferred (e.g., via the Hawala informal banking system or couriers).

The current leader of Hizb is also unknown, as are where he resides and the identity of the senior officers of Hizb. Upon his death, an-Nabhani was succeeded by Sheikh Abd-el Qadim Zaloom, another Palestinian cleric and a former professor at Al-Azhar in Cairo.34 Zaloom was with Hizb for 50 years and died on April 29, 2003.35 While anecdotal reports place the organization's headquarters in London and indicate that many European converts to Islam are staffing mid- and senior levels of the organization, very little evidence confirms this. These questions need to be answered, and a joint international program of collecting intelligence on Hizb and countering its activities must be developed.

WHAT THE U.S. SHOULD DO

The U.S. and its allies in the war on terrorism need to recognize that Hizb ut-Tahrir is a growing threat in Central Asia. Specifically, to develop a comprehensive strategy and counter Hizb's influence, the U.S. should: Expand intelligence collection on Hizb ut-Tahrir. This needs to be done both in Western Europe and in outlying areas, such as Central Asia, Pakistan, and Indonesia. Most important is information on state sponsorship, leadership, finances, intentions and capabilities, time lines, links with violent terrorist groups, and penetration of state structures. The U.S. intelligence community should work with the United Kingdom's MI5 and MI6 and with the intelligence services of Russia, Pakistan, Indonesia, and the Central Asian states. U.S. analysts and policymakers, however, should be aware that some of the regimes in question will attempt to portray Hizb as a terrorist organization with links to Osama bin Laden.36

Condition security assistance to Central Asia on economic reform. Hizb is growing in Central Asia due to the "revolution of diminishing expectations," increasing despair, and the lack of secular political space and economic opportunity in the region.37 While some are attracted to Hizb's harsh version of radical Islam, others see it is as an outlet for their frustration with the status quo and an instrument for upward mobility. U.S. assistance to Central Asian countries, which has doubled since 9/11, has not changed the economic dynamics in the region, and most of the funds were understandably earmarked for security cooperation and military assistance.

To jump-start economic development, the Bush Administration should condition Pentagon security assistance on the adoption of free market policies, strengthening property rights and the rule of law, encouraging transparency, and fighting corruption. These measures are likely to make the Central Asian economies more attractive to private investment, stimulate domestic economic growth, and increase prosperity and economic opportunity, thus diminishing the ability of Hizb to use economic decline as an engine for recruitment, as it does in the Ferghana Valley and Kyrgyzstan.

Encourage democracy and popular participation. The scarcity of secular and moderate Islamic democratic politics and credible non-governmental organization (NGO) activities and the lack of freedom of expression may be driving thousands of young recruits to join Hizb in Central Asia, especially in Uzbekistan. There have been no democratic elections in the region for several years, and the opposition press is either nonexistent or severely curbed. Hizb, as well as jihadi organizations, recruits from among alienated students and urban youth, frustrated with the status quo and facing limited futures.

While economic opportunity, religious freedom, and freedom of expression are not a panacea against Islamist radicalism, as the swelling ranks of young Islamic fundamentalists in Western Europe demonstrate, expanding the civic space and allowing more political pluralism, media diversity, and grassroots initiatives may diminish Hizb's appeal. According to a representative of a major U.S. NGO, some liberalization of the nonprofit sector has been attained in the Central Asian countries since 9/11. This trend needs to be encouraged.38

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the State Department should, however, coordinate their activities with the Pentagon, World Bank, and the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development, all of which are interested in political stability, reducing corruption, and development of property rights and a more investment-oriented environment. Together, they are more likely to convince the Central Asian regimes to undertake further political liberalization, including competitive, free and fair elections.
Discredit radicals and encourage moderates. The U.S. should encourage local governments to not only crack down on radical Islam (as they already do), but also encourage alternatives

Uzbekistan has reportedly jailed hundreds of Hizbi activists. The Union of Councils' Central Asian Information Network has documented disappearances, 14 deaths in detention, and over 500 political prisoners in Uzbekistan.39 Human Rights Watch claims that thousands of Central Asian prisoners could qualify as political, including many members of Hizb, who receive 15-17 year sentences for minor offenses such as leaflet distribution.40

The State Department and U.S.-funded NGOs should encourage more U.S. media exposure (e.g., Uzbek and other local language broadcasts by Radio Liberty and the Voice of American) and educational contacts, speaking engagements, and exchanges between local clergy and moderate Muslim leaders in the West.41 The Central Asian public needs to be directly exposed to traditional moderate local brands of Islam, Sufi mystical branches (Tariq'at), and reformist moderate Jadidi Islam.

Beyond that, secular regimes in Central Asia should stop persecuting new evangelical Christian denominations, Buddhists, and Zoroastrians. Development of independent media and activities aimed at youth, women, the business community, and ethnic and religious minorities--groups more likely to be discriminated against by Hizb and other radical Sunni groups--should be encouraged and supported.42

However, Hizb, as well as Salafi/Wahhabi and other radical Islamic schools that preach jihad against America and the West, should not be allowed to operate. The U.S. should provide support to local media to cover negative examples of the application of Shari'a law, such as amputations for minor offenses or alcohol possession in Chechnya, Afghanistan under the Taliban, Saudi Arabia, and other places. The consequences of jihad-type civil war, such as in Algeria, which left 100,000-200,000 dead, should also be covered. Positive coverage of the West should also be supported.

CONCLUSION

Hizb ut-Tahrir represents a growing medium- and long-term threat to geopolitical stability and the secular regimes of Central Asia and ultimately poses a potential threat to other regions of the world. The party is transnational, secretive, and extremist in its anti-Americanism. It seeks to overthrow and destroy existing regimes and establish a Shari'a-based Caliphate. Hizb may launch terrorist attacks against U.S. targets and allies, operating either alone or in cooperation with other global terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda. A Hizb takeover of any Central Asian state could provide the global radical Islamist movement with a geographic base and access to the expertise and technology to manufacture weapons of mass destruction. The U.S. and its allies must do everything possible to avoid such an outcome.

Ariel Cohen, Ph.D., is Research Fellow in Russian and Eurasian Studies in the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for International Studies at The Heritage Foundation.

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1. "Hizb-ut-Tahrir s korichnevym ottenkom" (Hizb-ut-Tahrir with a brown tinge), Vecherniy Bishkek, April 4, 2003.
2. Interview with Husain Haqqani, The Carnegie Endowment, May 2003; see also "Fourteen Members of Hizb ut-Tahrir Caught," Anatolia Press Agency, March 6, 2000; "More Arrests Reported in Hizb ut-Tahrir Operations," Anatolia Press Agency, March 7, 2000; FBIS/World News Connection, March 7, 2000.
3. Union of Councils Central Asian Information Network, "Uzbekistan: List of 14 Possible Political Prisoners Who Died in Jail, 5 Disappearances and 505 Possible Political Prisoners," at www.eurasianet.org/resource/uzbekistan/links/uzrt916.html.
4. Taqiuddin an-Nabhani, Khilafa, quoted in Alima Bissenova, "Hizb al-Tahrir Political Thought from the Pan-Islamic Perspective," paper presented at the 8th Annual Convention of the Association for Study of Nationalities, New York, April 2003, p. 6.
5. Al-Mawardi, The Ordinances of Government (United Kingdom: Garnett Publishing, 1996). An-Nabhani based his judgment on the work of Al-Mawardi, the first Islamic scholar who decreed the necessity of establishing the Caliphate. See Bissenova, "Hizb al-Tahrir Political Thought from the Pan-Islamic Perspective," pp. 8-11.
6. "Hizb-ut-Tahrir na `Svobode,'" (Hizb-ut-Tahrir at Radio Liberty); Vremia Po (Almaty, Kazakhstan), July 22, 2001; interview with Vitaly Ponomarev, coordinator of Central Asian program of the Moscow human rights group Memorial, available at FBIS.
7. Alisher Khamidov, "Countering the Call: The U.S., Hizb ut-Tahrir, and Religious Extremism in Central Asia," draft, Brookings Project on U.S. Policy Towards the Islamic World, April 2003.
8. Ahmed Rashid, "Asking for Holy War," at iiccas.org/englsih/enlibrary/libr_22_11_00_1.htm.
9. Michael R. Fischbach, "Biography of Taqyy al-Din an-Nabhani," in Phillip Mattar, ed., Encyclopedia of the Palestinians, at www.palestineremembered.com/Haifa/Ijzim/Story819.html.
10. "While in Baghdad, al-Husseini aided the pro-Nazi revolt of 1941. He then spent the rest of World War II as Hitler's special guest in Berlin, advocating the extermination of Jews in radio broadcasts to the Middle East and recruiting Balkan Muslims for the infamous SS `mountain divisions' that tried to wipe out Jewish communities throughout the region." See "Who was the Grand Mufti, Haj Muhammed Amin al-Husseini?" at www.palestinefacts.org/pf_mandate_grand_mufti.php.
11. Hashem Kassem, "Hizb- ut-Tahrir al Islami" (The Islamic Liberation Party), 2002, at www.eastwestrecord.com/get_articles.asp?articleid=219.
12. Ibid.
13. Fischbach, "Biography of Taqyy al-Din an-Nabhani."
14. Ahmed Rashid, "Asking for Holy War," at iiccas.org/englsih/enlibrary/libr_22_11_00_1.htm.
15. Personal interview with Husain Haqqani, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, April 2003.
16. Hizb ut-Tahrir, "The Reasons for the Establishment of Hizb ut-Tahrir," at www.hizb-ut-tahrir.org/english.
17. Compare V. I. Lenin, What Is To Be Done (New York: International Publishers, 1988), pp. 111-113 and 122-123 on legal work, and pp. 126-129 on the spread of illegal cells and activities.
18. Alexei Malashenko, "Musul'mane v nachale veka: Nadezhdy & ugrozy" (Muslims in the beginning of the century: Hopes and threats), Moscow Carnegie Center Working Paper No. 7, 2002, pp. 5-6.
19. Sidik Aukbur, "The True Meaning of Jihad," Khilafah, May 2003, at www.khilafah.com/home/category.php?DocumentID=7059&TagID24.
20. "Alliance with America Is a Capital Crime Prohibited by Islam," Hizb ut-Tahrir leaflet, September 18, 2001, at www.hizb-ut-tahrir.org.
21. "Alliance with America Is a Capital Crime Prohibited by Islam," Hizb ut-Tahrir leaflet, September 18, 2001, at www.khilafah.com/home/category_list.php?
22. Hizb ut-Tahrir, "America and Britain Declare War Against Islam and the Muslims," communiqué, October 14, 2001, at www.khilafah.com/home/category.php?DocumentID=2428&TagID=3.
23. Ibid.
24. Hizb-ut Tahrir Britain, "An Open Letter from Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain to the Iraqi Opposition Groups Conferring in Their Conference in London," December 13, 2002, at www.islamic-state.org/leaflets/021213_OpenLetterToIraqiOppositionConfLondon.pdf.
25. Ahmed Rashid, "Asking for Holy War," International Eurasian Institute for Economic and Political Research, at iicas.org/english/enlibrary/libr_22_11_00_1.htm.
26. "The Method of Hizb ut-Tahrir," at english.hizb-ut-tahrir.org/definition/messages.htm.
27. Hashem Kassem, "Hizb- ut-Tahrir al Islami."
28. "The Method of Hizb ut-Tahrir" (italics added).
29. Ibid.
30. Ibid.
31. Ibid. (bullet points added).
32. "U.S. Interests in the Central Asian Republics," Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific, Committee on International Relations, U.S. House of Representatives, 105th Cong., 2nd Sess., February 12, 1998, at commdocs.house.gov/committees/intlrel/hfa48119.000/hfa48119_0f.htm.
33. Ariel Cohen, "U.S. Interests in Central Asia," testimony before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific , March 17, 1999, at www.heritage.org/Research/AsiaandthePacific/Test031799.cfm.
34. Ahmed Rashid, "Reviving the Caliphate," chapter 6 of Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia (New Haven: Penguin Books, 2003), p. 119.
35. "Hizb ut-Tahrir Announces the Death of Its Ameer," at www.hizb-ut-tahrir.org/english/leaflets/leaflet4.htm.
36. Rashid, "Reviving the Caliphate," p. 135. Under the auspices of the Taliban, representatives of Hizb attended meetings in Kabul, Afghanistan, in which the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and Al-Qaeda also participated.
37. Ibid., pp. 135-136.
38. Personal interview with a source who requests not to be identified, April 2003.
39. Union of Councils Central Asian Information Network, "Uzbekistan: List of 14 Possible Political Prisoners Who Died in Jail, 5 Disappearances and 505 Possible Political Prisoners."
40. "Uzbekistan: Harassment Before EBRD Annual Meeting," Human Rights Watch, May 2, 2003, at www.hrw.org/press/2003/05/uzbek050203.htm; see also "Persecution of Human Rights Defenders in Uzbekistan," Human Rights Watch Briefing Paper, May 1, 2003, at hrw.org/backgrounder/eca/uzbek050103-bck.htm.
41. "Muslim Clerics Visit U.S.," Caspian Business News, December 16, 2002, p. 12, at www.caspianbusinessnews.com/NewSite/preview/sections/regional/docs/16-12-2002.pdf. However, USAID, which is funding visits to the U.S. by Central Asian clergy so they can learn how Islam functions in a democracy, should be careful not to expose them to U.S.-based Wahhabis, who are actively abusing the democratic system.
42. Ariel Cohen, "Promoting Freedom and Democracy: Fighting the War of Ideas Against Islamic Terrorism," Comparative Strategy, June 2003, forthcoming.

By virtue of his unwavering support for the Afghan mujahideen during their protracted, devastating war against the Soviet Union, for more than a decade Usama bin Laden was an ally of the United States. It was during those years his own countrymen, and Arabs in general, thought of bin Laden as a philanthropist and noble hero of the fight against the atheist communists. The Making of a LegendMore recently, in the aftermath of two terrorist incidents in Nairobi and Dar Es Salaam, governments across four continents—specifically: the US, England, India, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and several former Soviet republics—have gone public with their concern that bin Laden is the most dangerous person in the world. Some terrorism experts recognize that he has stolen the spotlight from Carlos, the Venezuelan terrorist of global repute who eluded capture for more than 20 years, so cunning in fact that many world-class agencies which tracked him did not know his face.

Milton Beardon, an American official who for six years directed support operations for the Afghans from inside in the late 80’s, says of bin Laden: "It all started when Usama bin Laden began to spend more time in Pakistan than in Saudi Arabia, going between the homeless refugees and the fighters. At that time he built refugee camps for the widows and children of the Afghan mujahideen. His Initiation in the Afghan WarIn a 1996 interview with Robert Fisk for British tabloid The Independent, bin Laden stated: When the invasion of Afghanistan started, I was enraged and went there immediately—I arrived within days of the outbreak, before the end of 1979. In fact, Laden went quickly from building refugee camps, clinics and schools for the children of the camps, to financing the mujahideen and outfitting them for the fight.

He then began to assemble his own fighters, known as the Afghan Arabs, for which he recruited thousands of men—mainly from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the Gulf. He even paid for their passage to Afghanistan and set up the main guerrilla camp where they received military training—bin Laden style. Bin Laden often visited Peshawar, a Pushto-speaking city carved roughly into the Himalayan foothills which, for centuries, has been home to Pathans of the Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan, a grassroots, hilly outpost which supports its own culture, tradition and language. Peshawar was a pivotal point for the Afghan freedom fighters through which the majority of money, weapons, and medicines were funneled from the outside world—and from all over the world—from clandestine government concerns as well as private efforts that endeavored to crush the Russian onslaught. From Philanthropy to Active CombatAnd so it was that bin Laden became a familiar sight in Peshawar, where he received reports of how his money had been spent, in addition to meeting regularly with his Arab legions.

But these meetings inspired in him less desire to merely fund the charitable and military operations and more desire to actually direct the fight. It was then bin Laden began to concentrate everything he had—his resources, his mind, his heart—into the actual combat operations in Afghanistan. It was a decision that reshaped him and which, perhaps, was the greatest passage on his journey into the Usama bin Laden persona we know today. Time magazine's Scott Mcleod, who visited bin Laden in 1996, says of his early days in actual combat, He designed and constructed defensive tunnels and ditches along the Pakistani border, driving a bulldozer and exposing himself to strafing from Soviet helicopter gunships. Before long, he had taken up a Kalashnikov and was going into battle.

In 1986 he and a few dozen Arab defenders fought off a Soviet onslaught in a town called Jaji, not far from the Pakistani borderÉ A year later, bin Laden led an offensive against Soviet troops in the battle of Sha`ban. Vicious hand-to-hand fighting claimed heavy mujahideen casualties, but his men succeeded in pushing the Soviets out of the area.The report quotes Hamza Mohammed, a Palestinian volunteer fighter, He was a hero to us because he was always on the front line, always moving ahead of everybody else. He continues, He not only gave his money, but he also gave himself. He came down from his palace to live with the Afghan peasants and Arab fighters. He cooked with them, ate with them, dug trenches with them. That was bin Laden's way.Battlefield Defeat of a SuperpowerBin Laden became popular after the famous Ali Khal operation, reports Paris-based Al-Watan al-`Arabi. a popular Arabic-language monthly news magazine. Bin Laden and his Afghan Arabs, with only light weapons, no artillery and minimal military training, were far outgunned by a huge Soviet army contingent supported by massive airpower.

Bin Laden and his ragtag troops defeated the Soviets and took back the area. About this battle, bin Laden is quoted as saying, [Ali Khal] destroyed the myth that a superpower cannot be defeated. It was after this operation that bin Laden’s fame spread far and wide, through a myriad of channels. Mercennaries and volunteers alike began to flow in from Arab states to join him. He paid them generously, supported their training and supplied them with arms. In a matter of months the ranks of his fighters had swelled to 10,000. His personal experiences on the battlefield were the stuff of legends. When interviewed by British reporter Robert Fisk, bin Laden said, I was never afraid of death. As Muslims, we believe that when we die, we go to heaven. Before a battle, God sends us sakina—tranquillity. Once I was only thirty meters from the Russians and they were trying to capture me. I was under bombardment, but I was so peaceful in my heart that I fell asleep....I saw a 120mm mortar shell land in front of me, but it did not blow up.

Four more bombs were dropped from a Russian plane on our headquarters but they did not explode. Armed by the USThe CIA reportedly began to funnel weapons to bin Laden as an ally against the Soviets, reports MSNBC—a report bin Laden strongly denies. Issam Daraz, who interviewed bin Laden in 1989 in the last months of the war, brought back photos and videos of bin Laden and his Afghan Arabs, armed with Stinger missiles supplied by the Reagan Administration. Family Background Usama bin Laden is one of 57 children of construction magnate Muhammad Awad bin Laden, a Saudi national of Yemeni origin.

Reportedly the only child from his father's marriage to a Palestinian woman, one of ten wives, He has no full brothers or sisters, which is rare in the bin Laden clan, a senior US intelligence official said. He was not held in high standing in the family even before the allegations of terrorism arose. Even today the bin Laden family whose businesses thrive throughout the Muslim world, particularly in Saudi Arabia and throughout the Middle East, Europe and America—has many children studying in the US. Usama labored in his family's construction business until shortly after the January 1979 invasion of Afghanistan by Soviet troops. Of his first trip to Afghanistan as a 20-year-old, bin Laden only knew it was a Muslim country and that ‘it had great horses,’ says Issam Daraz. Flight to SudanWhen the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989, bin Laden returned to work in the family’s Jeddah-based construction business, to discovere that he’d become a celebrity. But his star appeal swiftly faded when he began denouncing the Saudi regime.

When he continued to affiliate with and support the militant Islamic groups he’d known in Afghanistan, less than five years after his return the Saudi government seized his passport. Bin Laden then fled to Sudan, embraced by Hassan al-Turabi, Sudan’s president. It is alleged that he thereafter financed as many as three terrorist training camps in Sudan over the course of his three-year stay. In his words, he voluntarily left for Pakistan in May 1996, afraid his presence was harming Sudan’s image in international circles. Some sources, however, say bin Laden was expelled. Declaration of War on USHaving tasted success in his support of the Afghans against the Soviets, bin Laden turned his military focus towards defeating the last remaining superpower the US. His tactic: kill as many Americans as possible, wherever they are in the world.

"You [Americans] will leave when the youth send you wooden boxes and coffins, and you will carry in them the bodies of American troops and civilians, vowed bin Laden in an exclusive interview with ABC News correspondent John Miller in June of this year. Allah ordered us in this religion to purify Muslim land of all non-believers, and especially the Arabian Peninsula where the Ka’aba is, which he went on to proclaim can only be cleansed through jihad."[Read link to Usama bin Laden's formal declaration of war]Proposed Formation of Terrorist NetworkFour months ago, bin Laden announced the formation of an umbrella organization to support extremist groups which have sprung up around the world, many of which share a rigid adherence to a literal understanding of Islam—one which rejects mainstream Muslim beliefs and invokes on them judgements of heresy, apostasy and unbelief.

All these groups share the teaching that existing moderate Islamic governments are outside Islam and must be toppled by force. In the same ABC News interview, bin Laden eerily addressed his own government. We predict that the Riyadh leader and those with him that stood with the Jews and Christians and forfeited Al-Haramayn—the two holy shrines—to Jews and Christians with American identities or others, will disintegrate. They have left the Muslim nation. We predict [their] destruction and dispersal. These groups concur that America is the Great Satan responsible for the failure of Muslims. They see American hands behind every misfortune that afflicts the Muslim world. In line with this, bin Laden and his troops have their sights squarely set on the US and its global interests. In the same ABC News interview, bin Laden implied that the fight would soon come to American soil.

The continuation of the tyranny will bring the fighting to America, like [through] Ramzi Yousef and others. This is my message to the American people. [Ramsi Yousef is the convicted World Trade Center bomber sentenced in absentia and captured last year in Pakistan.]Several months before the US Embassy blasts last August, Usama bin Laden held a press conference announcing the formation of an umbrella organization, The International Front against Jews and Crusaders. Al-Wasat al-`Arabi reports that at his side was the leader of Egypt’s notorious Jihad Movement, Dr. Ayman Rabi'a al-Zawahari. Al-Wasat reports that bin Laden’s network has in effect aligned an array of rebel groups from different nations who joined the Afghan fighters, including Egyptians (primarily comprised of members of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamic Group and the Jihad Movement) Saudis, Palestinians, Jordanians, Algerians, Gulf Arabs, Pakistanis, Afghans, Sudanese, Somalians, and a scattering from other nations.

Even American-Muslim converts are reported among them. His trained killers work zealously in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sudan, Yemen, Ethiopia, Somalia and in Europe, where their headquarters are located in Holland. While bin Laden did not appear publicly after the American retaliatory attacks on Sudan and Afghanistan, the Jihad Movement's leader, Dr. al-Zawahari, telephoned international media sources from Afghanistan, voicing threats to America and declaring war against its interests, wherever they are. He told journalists, bin Laden is alive and well, sitting right beside me. Anonymous American officials have revealed that al-Zawahiri was with bin Laden when the American attacks took place—miraculously they were both unharmed. New Friend – New Ideology According to al-Wasat, the story of the friendship between these two men goes back to their first meeting in the summer of 1989 during one of bin Laden’s visits to Peshawar.

Sources say they have never separated since. Of the same generation, bin Laden now 40 years old and al-Zawahiri 47, an al-Wasat source says the pair were satisfied with the role the other played: the affluent Saudi using his millions stashed in the US and Switzerland to support the jihad in Afghanistan; and the Egyptian ideologue, the guiding intellect behind the strategems of war.Al-Wasat states that al-Zawahiri is the one who indoctrinated Usama bin Laden into following a rigid ideology: applying a restrictive reading of Shari`ah (Islamic Law), condemning mainstream Muslim governments, and implementing jihad against them. Furthermore, he persuaded Usama to move from charitable to militant work. Usama, who began to spend more and more time with Al-Zawahiri, came to accept his simplistic Egyptian Jihad Model. Originating within the cauldron of Egypt’s many movements, this methodology contends that militant work must precede propagation (da`wah) work. Al-Zawahiri's thinking reflects this.

Edicts such as the Islamic Group's The Decisive Word, argue that Muslims must stand and fight existing governments and overthrow them. Through clever twisting of source texts interspersed with snippets from juristic rulings of later scholars, they build an apparently convincing justification for the Islamic nature of their cause. Enthusiastic Arab youth, uneducated and often unemployed, entirely disillusioned with the state of the Muslim community, easily fall for such adrenalin-soaked solutions, perhaps motivated by the sheer militancy of it all. Al-Wasat's sources state that bin Laden drank deeply from the fount of ideology and information provided by al-Zawahiri, absorbing his anti-government, anti-America doctrine. In fact, bin Laden's statement to ABC News echoes his total indoctrination by Al-Zawahiri. We don't differentiate between those dressed in military uniforms and civilians. They are all targets in this fatwa.

Despite Islam's clear injunctions against harming civilians in war, particularly women and children, the Jihad Movement explicitly condones the use of terrorism, citing the Shari`ah's allowance for collateral killing of hostages if an attack is directed at a group of combatants. We must use such punishment to keep your evil away from Muslims, Muslim children and women, said bin Laden. To justify such violence in the name of Islam he cites American history. Americans, he retorted, does not distinguish between civilians and military, and not even women and children. They are the ones who used the bombs against Nagasaki.Other Influential AssociatesAnother influence on Usama was Al-Zawahiri's friend Ali Rashidi, a former Egyptian police officer, expelled from the force after being accused of establishing the Jihad Movement to topple the government, reports that facilitated his migration to Afghanistan.

While al-Zawahiri swayed bin Laden's mind, Al-Wasat says, al-Rashidi captured his heart; a potent combination that resulted in bin Laden becoming more extreme than the extremists. Other friends from Egypt included Muhammad Shawki al-Islambouli, brother of Anwar Sadat's assassin, and Muhammad Hamza, accused of attempting to assassinate President Hosni Mubarak in Addis Ababa. Both were initial organizers of the Jihad Movement.Disarming Contenders for PowerAl-Zawahiri's self-serving political agenda surfaced years before meeting bin Laden, when he issued the infamous Fatwa of Leadership in Egypt. In this edict, he defined those eligible to lead the Islamic revolution and those who are not. Through this fatwa, al-Zawahiri was able to eliminate the chance for Shaykh Umar Abdur Rahman to lead the ultra-radical Jihad Movement, prior to his emigration to the US. In it he stated: There can be no leadership for a blind person. Al-Zawahiri derived this from the medieval scholar al-Mawardi's Conditions of Leading the Muslim Nation, which prescribes sound senses of hearing, sight and speech.

Al-Zawahiri further declared, A prisoner cannot be a leader, thereby ruling out another contender, the Jihad Movement’s founder Aboud az-Zumar, imprisoned for the assassination of Sadat. This edict opened a deep rift between al-Zawhiri and az-Zumar whic split the group in two. By the time the Jihad Movement began sending volunteers to Peshawar, Umar Abdur Rahman had lost the chance to take its lead, and Usama bin Laden's loyalty had already been captured by al-Zawahiri. The Islamic Group was too late to assert its influence on bin Laden's heart and he declined to attach himself to their movement. Despite this, he continued to fund them, and left them to fight on their own, aligning himself with the Jihad Movement, over which al-Zawahiri exacted total command.Nonetheless, Umar Abdur Rahman is clearly someone whom bin Laden holds in esteem.

He told ABC News , We also hold them [America] responsible for its attacks on Islamic symbols [such as] Shaykh Abdur Rahman, who is considered one of the most prominent Islamic scholars whom Allah gave the courage to speak the truth. However, the Islamic Group continued to regard bin Laden as simply a wealthy Arab sponsor while regarding themselves as the warriors and callers-to-religion, in effect giving him no credit for his own jihad work. In spite of this, an Egyptian source reveals, bin Laden helped the Islamic Group establish their own military base, al-Murabitoun, while he simultaneously established one for the Jihad Movement, named al-Khilafah.According to a member of the Afghan Arabs, bin Laden tried many times to get the Islamic Group and al-Zawahiri’s Jihad Movement to compromise. Each time the Islamic Group accused him of siding with al-Zawahiri.

In fact, he supports them both. As Head of His International Family Bin Laden often sponsored large groups of mujahideen—their travel, food, financial needs, accommodations and weapons—and he brought them to the frontier between Pakistan and Afghanistan to train. Mr. Isawi Bassiouni Muhammad Tahrouj, one of bin Laden's Afghan Arabs, stated before the Egyptian court in 1992: Bin Laden was responsible for everything. As soon as I arrived at the safehouse in Egypt, a man met me, named Abu Abdullah, who used to work in the safehouse owned by bin Laden. Abu Abdullah got me a visa to Pakistan and reserved a plane ticket. I flew alone. He told me there would be people waiting for me at Islamabad International Airport. In the plane I saw many Egyptians that I had known before, going for the same purpose.When we arrived in Pakistan we went to bin Laden’s ‘Ansar House’, where I stayed with the rest for two days.

I moved to the ‘Martyr's House’, also owned by bin Laden. Finally we went to the Baari military base, commanded by Abu Turkiyya from Libya. I stayed there 50 days, where I was trained in all types of weapons and artillery. Then I was sent to the front to fight in an area called Tarin Mar, about 100 miles from the Pakistani frontier. There I was introduced to the Jihad Movement. They asked me to join them, and I accepted. They gave me the unit name of Abu `Ubaidah al-`Abbasi. Then they transferred me to the military base 'Khilafah,' which is a training base. There I saw many military bases and homes which they said were financed, built and supported by bin Laden, but I never saw bin Laden.Another Egyptian fighter, Ashraf Ahmed Yusuf al-Badawi, 20 years of age, made the following statement: While bin Laden was sending people to Afghanistan, he was also sending people to Bosnia, with an Egyptian representative named Anwar Sha`ban, who ran the Islamic Center of Rome.

He was able to fly many volunteer fighters to Bosnia. When Anwar Sha`ban died in 1994, one of the Gulf fighters became the leader of the Islamic Center. Bin Laden used to sponsor all the mujahideen from their homes to their bases and give each one 1000 Saudi riyals, (about $250) as pocket money. Terrorist Training BasesAccording to visits by an occasional reporter, the Arab Afghans built their military bases in the steep mountainsides near the Pakistani border. This hilly area is surrounded by forests, and each hillock contains a complete, self-contained military base, developed for the intensive preparation of fighters. A fighter's life consists of constant physical and military training: climbing mountains, passing through barricades and doing clandestine advanced weapons training.

Experts believe these bases provide the most arduous military training in the world, the most dangerous of which takes place at a base named ‘Kamikaze’, Japanese for human suicide mission. The Ultimate Training GroundThe story of the ‘Kamikaze’ base is both strange and frightening indeed. Al-Watan reports that more than 5,000 youth ranging in age from 16 to 25 train there at any given time, coming from all parts of the world. The kamikazes, or suicide bombers are proud of their title. Their main objective is to fight on an international scale, wherever they are needed and whenever they are called, even if on a moment’s notice. According to al-Watan, the base is surrounded by signs and fiery slogans such as Jihad - Istishaad - Jannah (Holy War–Martyrdom–Paradise) and Kamikaze Islami (Islamic Suicide Bomber).

This is not simple graffitti—surprisingly, one soon finds each sign has been lovingly carved, not only on walls, stones and wooden signs, but in the hearts of these young fighters. The base itself is enormous, containing several hundred divisions, set in an area that is nearly impossible to reach. It is biting cold in winter, scorched by the desert sun in summer—no one stays there but the toughest of men. The intense security which guards all approaches to the camp resembles that of an industrialized nation's intelligence service. The arsenal arrayed here is like a buffet of steel from the depths of hell: from a variety of light, medium and heavy weapons to tanks, howitzers, heavy artillery, anti-aircraft guns, RPG's, Stingers, Dushkas and other types of missiles, and even aircraft. According to al-Watan, what is more frightening even than this warmonger's candystore are its training techniques.

Its drill instructors are markedly fierce and harsh. Mostly hired mercenaries with extensive experience in combat, the majority of trainers are from Egypt and are highly respected throughout the camps. The base is composed of multiple levels, each housing its own school. The first level consists of intensive physical training, religious indoctrination seminars and workshops. IndoctrinationEach group has a religious teacher responsible for initiating the youth in the highly restrictive doctrine that becomes the fuel for these young militants’ jihad. Using labels like idolatry, unbelief and fiery rhetoric, the teacher is a master of mind-manipulation. Through misapplication of verses of Qur’an and hadith, the teacher mentally brands idealistic and hotblooded youth with his ideology. In this view, everything ideologically different must be violently opposed and destroyed. This teaching is in fact more important than any weapons training they receive. Al-Watan reports, the period of indoctrination begins with initiation.

The religious teacher secludes himself with small groups of youth, called `usar, meaning family. His teaching is built on the belief that anything not found in their ideology must be rejected—even if it is derived through established principles of Islamic jurisprudence. Therefore, the one performing any such act is an unbeliever, who must then repent and renew his or her testimony of faith or be killed. The followers of this ideology are trained to condemn and fight the majority of mainstream Muslims who comprise 97% of Islam's followers, and alihgning themselves with the 3% minority who adhere to their beliefs. This minority belief demands that all Muslims adopt their severe ideology—one created by Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhab who appeared in the 18th century under the guise of reforming and purifying Islam. Abdul Wahhab was sponsored by the British as a means of dividing the Arabs against the Ottoman caliphate.

This ideology was suppressed for several decades, then sprang forth with a vengeance among newly-created Arab nations at the turn of the twentieth century. The religious trainer instills in the youth a most ungodly motto: The goal—martyrdom; the method—killing. They are taught they must cleanse Muslim regimes of infidelity. Ironically, those nations that presently stand condemned by this doctrine are those which launched them not long ago. Levels of Terrorist Training The emotionally-charged youth continue initiation with intense physical training such as running, climbing, crawling, scaling walls, jumping through burning tires, carrying weights and hauling equipment. It is non-stop exercise for the youth; with their only rest a brief interval after each of the five prayers, and their sleep late at night.The second level of training focuses on weapons.

The fighters learn to use semi-automatic and automatic weapons, beginning with handguns and rifles, then moving to Klashnikovs. They undergo live-fire exercises and continue with the strenuous physical training.At the third level the youth learn combat tactics such as house-to-house searches, advanced training in use of all heavy weapons and anti-aircraft weapons, RPGs, and Dushka missiles.The fourth level trains the fighters in all forms of explosives, traditional and modern, including the use of mines, how to build bombs with timers and remote controls, and how to assemble car bombs. The Making of a Killing MachineOnly the most advanced fighters graduate to the fifth level, training in techniques of suicide bombing. In this final stage, hand-selected, readied troops become familiar with methods of self-destruction using bombs strapped to their backs or chests.

Instructors in kamikaze training are extremely specialized in this art. Distinguished from other instructors in their day-to-day conduct, in their character and demeanor, they command the highest respect within the camps.The distinguishable navy-blue uniforms mark kamikaze trainees from the standard white issue of lower-ranking fighters. They speak to no one, return no greetings and behave robot-like, as if existing to achieve one thing: becoming martyrs in the way of God. This level of fighter is trained to be ready at a moment's notice, to go wherever ordered. They have mastered time-tested strategies of evading secret services, immigration, intelligence services and police anywhere in the world and under any circumstance. The graduate suicide-bombers then remain waiting in the mountains for their final orders.It is reported as high as 9% of the inductees successfully complete this last stage of intensivephysical and psychological training, a statistic which is unverifiable.

Kamikazes are sponsored by movements and organizations around the world, each with its unique political agenda and inclination, far removed from mainstream Islamic teachings of moderation, peace and goodwill.Joining the NetworkIt is said that bin Laden operates as a venture capitalist for terror: groups apply for support and, if approved, are given a deposit account, and steady long-term financing begins. As these groups take on more radical overtones, reports al-Watan, they issue fatwas endorsing the destruction of Muslim governments and their infrastructure. Ordinary civilians who do not accept this rendition of Islam are deemed deviants, targeted for correction. The report states these groups have begun to send their indoctrinated and battle-trained youth all around the world, instigating confusion and political instability in nations where the central government is weak. The republics of the former Soviet Union and war-torn nations of the Balkans are currently affected by this devious brand of warfare.

Nations already reporting attacks by outside groups include Azerbaijan, Chechnya, Daghestan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhastan, Turkmenistan, Bosnia, Kosova and Albania. In these countries kidnappings, car bombings and assassinations have become commonplace, carried out under the auspices of bin Laden’s web of violence. Interference in Affairs of StateIn Chechnya, where Muslim soldiers and civilians valiantly fought massive Russian army divisions for years to honor their Muslim ancestry and proclaim an Islamic republic, imported groups are now trying to overthrow the government established by the Chechen people themselves. After one battle between Chechen national troops and over 1,000 outside mercenaries, President Aslan Maskhadov said, "We are building a Chechen Islamic state, we shall have the Shari`ah courts [but] all Arabs, Tajiks, Pakistanis and others who came to Chechnya—not to establish the law of Allah, but to split Chechen society—will be ousted from the territory of Chechnya.

President Maskhadov accused one Arab nation of trying to force its ideology, foreign to true Islam, on the whole Muslim world. These groups especially target Muslims who have good relations or interests in the West. Ironically, one of bin Laden's associates revealed to ABC News that his money is scattered among secret financial and commercial agencies in Europe and the Arab world. The movement, it appears, operates on the Marxist principle that the ends justifies the means.America's Greatest FearsAl-Watan cites evidence gathered by several Arab nations stating that America's greatest fear is not bin Laden's terrorist agenda or his plans to attack American interests, rather it is his political agenda. The information, gathered by various secret services, details plans by groups supported by bun Laden to attack the entire Gulf Area—whose governments and citizens they consider renegades from true Islam. The reports show that plans are to first take over Kuwait and establish a government based on the deviant ideology.

Kuwait is targeted because it has many internal problems and because many wealthy Kuwaitis support the notion. The first stage of their mission is to force America to reduce its military presence in Kuwait.A Western investigator who specializes in the problems of the Gulf explained to al-Watan that information was gathered over a long time by tapping satellite conversations of Kuwaiti extremists. He claims that America’s concern for Kuwait's future intensified after well-known Gulf and Yemeni personalities assisted in the Dar Es-Salaam and Nairobi bombings. Intelligence analysts around the world have studied the political situation in Kuwait extensively. Analyses showed that after its takeover, the extremists would use Kuwait as a base for continued expansion into the remaining Gulf countries.Al-Watan reports that American intelligence has identified many radical organizations operating in Kuwait as genuine charities.

These charities secretly assist the political and military agenda of the extremists, donating millions of dollars to groups that oppose the government and the West. Furthermore, the US has increased its preparedness in the Gulf and enhanced security around civil and military bases. US soldiers have been urged to remain in their barracks and to be heavily armed if they emerge, for fear of kidnapping or assassination.The seven principal Kuwaiti charities assisting the spread of extremist movements: The Organization of Rectification, led by Abdullah al-`Ali al Abdul Wahhab al-mutawwa` Revivers of Culture, led by Tariq al`Isa The Safety Charity ; The Commission of Global Islamic Charity ; both are led by Yusuf al-Hajji The Association to Assist Your Muslim Brother The Women's Peaceful Harvest whose ideology is that of the Muslim Brotherhood The Committee of Helping the Muslims of Asia and Africa , which collects and sends money to Afghanistan, Bosnia, Somalia, Sudan and other areas [source: al-Watan] Funding Sources Worry US OfficialsAmericans also worry, states al-Watan al-`Arabi, about the financial organizations and institutions under the influence of extremists.

One such institution, Kuwaiti Finance House, collects charity and sends it under the name Islamic Partnership Work to groups in many countries. According to one source, a two-year investigation into bank accounts and wire transfers showed these institutions poured huge sums of money into movements involved in terrorist actions all over the world.According to al-Wasat, bin Laden's support for HAMAS, established many years ago, has been continuous and plentiful. Funds go through the intelligence service of HAMAS, Majd whose office is in the al-Amaraat District of Khartoum. Bin Laden had also woven a relationship between himself, the Lebanese Hizbullah and al-Zawahiri which has proven of benefit to all parties.Tracking Down bin LadenAl-Watan's US sources say that the two attacks by 79 Tomahawk missiles represent the beginning of a new kind of war against terrorist movements, and particularly bin Laden. A US intelligence service revealed that Clinton's apparently quick decision to launch missiles against Afghanistan and Sudan had in fact been decided and prepared long before the embassy bombings.

The strategy to fight global terrorism and the steps to implement it had been put in place for some time. US officials revealed that most of intelligence gathered about bin Laden's terrorist network was through clandestine electronic monitoring by US spy satellites and ground facilities, with the assistance of Pakistan's Inter-Service Intelligence Service.One intelligence official stated to MSNBC, I was amazed to find how easy it was to make the connection [to the East Africa bombings], noting the trace had been much harder to make after the bombings in Riyadh and Khobar in 1996, also attributed by the US to bin Laden's network. The ease was due to the US's bugging and surveillance of bin Laden’s network over the past few years since the Riyadh bombings which killed US troops. The official revealed that the US looked at it for a long timeÉand this time, it was easier to make the connection. The East Africa bombings provided us with the opportunity. Further he said the information was obtained in the first few days after the August 7th explosions.

He said the United States has been targeting the terrorist complex with spy satellites for some time and had long since prepared plans for attacking bin Laden, awaiting President Clinton’s order. US Plan to Eliminate bin LadenOfficial sources interviewed in Europe and the US told Al-Watan that the two American attacks might bring a halt to the terrorist actions for a time, but it will not be a permanent solution. For that reason, the American military have defined several options for eliminating bin Laden.Military actionThis could lead to an attack, through bombing or missile attacks on terrorist bases, wherever they are located, in Afghanistan or other places, targeting bin Laden's dwelling. Such action might include commando raids by helicopter. This requires the assistance of a neighboring friendly country, which would have to be Pakistan.

This is no longer possible, as most of the people of Pakistan like the Afghans, love bin Laden.Striking a Deal With the TalibanThe other option, which Al-Watan’s sources consider more acceptable to the US, is for Taliban and the US to make a deal to eliminate bin Laden. Inside speculation indicates the scheme most favored by US high-level officials would be to negotiate America’s recognition of the Taliban government and end US condemnation of alleged human rights violations as the price to eliminate bin Laden. These sources told Al-Watan that such an agreement has nearly been finalized and the term elimination has been mentioned in the proposed agreement many times. Some of Al-Watan’s sources imply that America does not want to kidnap or extradite bin Laden in order to put him on trial, as the US and other nations know it might uncover new information linking bin Laden with governments friendly to America and possibly with the US itself.

This in turn would cause a serious problem at the highest diplomatic levels and would damage America's credibility as a champion of the fight against terrorism. The Pakistan ConnectionAl-Watan’s sources say that kidnapping bin Laden would require extensive collaboration with the Pakistanis, whose secret service supports the concept of the US and Taliban striking a deal. Sources in Islamabad told Al-Watan that a series of meetings are taking place between the US and Taliban, after the Taliban's recent victories in the north of Afghanistan gave them control of more than 90% of Afghan territory. A high official at USAID in Islamabad said that even after the two bomb blasts at the American embassies, the secret meetings are going forward in an area near the frontier tightly monitored by Pakistan's Inter-Intelligence Service. In these meetings, according to the same source, the US hopes to designate Taliban to represent American interests in the area, establishing a new government in Afghanistan allied with Washington.

Inciting the Muslims to Fight Each OtherOne aspect of any deal Washington hopes to make with Taliban is that they will stand against Iran in support of the US Another is that Taliban will incite strife within Russia's many interests in the Caspian region. Pakistani sources told Al-Watan that by supporting Taliban, Washington hopes to keep Iran in an incessant state of war, exhausting them in the region. Such bloodshed might last a very long time, as each nation—considered by America as fanatic in their own schools of thought—seeks to defeat the other. The same sources say that Washington predicts that Taliban's demands on the US will be minimal: to grant official recognition to their government and to drop the issues of civil and women's rights.

The main complication in the deal, Al-Watan’s sources claim, is bin Laden himself. They state that Taliban is concerned about their money purportedly managed by bin Laden. Mullah Umar Mohammad, leader of the Taliban, is also alleged to be a close friend of Usama. Furthermore, it is believed Taliban is worried about stirring up an open fight with extremist Arab movements. Al-Watan states that US security experts say the deal with Taliban would specify that they attempt to set up an internal power struggle among bin Laden's own fighters. Alternatively, they would set up a fight between some of Taliban's fighters and the bodyguards of bin Laden—resulting in bin Laden being killed. The US of course hopes all these plans remain secret. Meanwhile, Afghan sources claim the US is encouraging the Afghan opposition commander Ahmed Shah Massoud, currently fighting Taliban outside Kabul, to attempt a covert mission to capture bin Laden.

These sources state that much of Massoud’s support comes now from Iran. Iran’s currently improving relationship with America on one hand and the US’s alleged attempts to use Taliban to fight Iran’s interests in the region on the other make Afghans worry that the US may be playing a double game whose only result will be more fighting. Tracing bin Laden's MoneyAl-Watan reports another American plan currently under examination is to trace bin Laden logistically. The most complex aspect of this for the US administration is identifying his financial holdings and then paralyzing this huge financial behemoth. His is an extremely sophisticated network, with account holders and money transfers being a closely-guarded secret. These experts say that bin Laden’s financial infrastructure involves many banks and paper companies with no employees.

All transactions of these institutions are legal and executed by businessmen who often have a minimal relationship with bin Laden. This makes tracing the flow of money extremely difficult. According to Al-Watan, Michael O'Hanlon, an expert on terrorism at the Brookings Institute in Washington DC, reported, Washington has advanced and perfected its ability to trace this group of people, their information and their money, and it is now able to acquire extremely detailed information in a very short time.Al-Watan also states US experts have information that a Luxembourg corporation moves bin Laden’s money without his name appearing. All profits of bin Laden's deals and transactions go to a secret account used to finance the Arab Afghans and their allies. Moreover, the American administration possesses information about European accounts (most set up in Amsterdam) under many names and corporate identities from different nations, many of which have nothing to do with Muslims.

All the money in these accounts belongs to bin Laden and is used to finance bin Laden's Arab group in Europe. Freezing bin Laden’s Assets These experts say that Washington is ready to confiscate bin Laden's money, alleged to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars, believed the source of his great success in having kept thousands of fighters heavily armed and for many governments to have covered his trail. The report from Washington, according to Al-Watan, states that America has begun its operation against bin Laden’s financial machine and has put many of its diplomatic officers and internationally-based resources to work to identify how to achieve this. At the time of this writing, Germany had just arrested Mr. Mamduh Mahmud Salim on charges of handling most of bin Laden’s foreign investments and coordinating the logistics that support his violent campaigns against the US and other perceived enemies of Islam. Sources close to him claim bin Laden owns many factories, plantations and businesses in Sudan—all under others’ names. Salim is also alleged to be tied to the pharmaceutical plant struck by US cruise missiles in Sudan. Salim admits to knowing bin Laden, but denies any involvement in his guerrilla activities.

The above-mentioned source says that in tracing back some of this money, it was found that bin Laden has deposited $500 million in his own name in the Central Bank of Khartoum. In addition to his own money, bin Laden manages funds deposited by many charity organizations, especially from the Gulf. The US administration believes that bin Laden also manages vast amounts of money for Taliban, amounting to no less than $8 billion, with derived profits going to the movement, reported in excess of $1 billion.Money From Drugs?Al-Watan quotes American sources alleging that some of the money bin Laden invests comes from the business of selling Afghan-grown narcotics, particularly opium. However, Taliban vehemently denies these allegations and points to its record of destroying opium crops as evidence to the contrary. Recent reports in the New York Times support Taliban’s contention, showing that total tonnage of opium entering Europe has decreased significantly since Taliban took control of Afghanistan.

Taliban has in turn requested that the West provide support for farmers, who, in destroying opium crops, often lose their sole source of income. Al-Watan’s sources say the Arab Afghans and other extremist organizations based in Europe are responsible for moving these drugs to the international market. Al-Watan alleges the benefit of selling drugs accrues to these organizations, including many well-known and established Muslim organizations. The money goes into complexed accounts through unlisted bank transfers. Charters of the banks involved prevent anyone tracing either incoming or outgoing masters, making tracking the source of funds extremely difficult for intelligence organizations. The money for these deals finally reaches bin Laden's account.

The US is mustering all the resources it can command to stop this flow of money, hoping to paralyze the Arab Afghans in their guerrilla war. The question yet to be answered is: will that stop terrorism?Predicting Future StrikesSources say American satellite data on bin Laden and movement of his network obtained after the attack on his bases in Afghanistan gives rise to major concerns. What the US fears most are retaliatory operations in unexpected places. Other information indicates that movement among covert extremist groups in Latin America has suddenly increased, and they fear attacks on US interests and personnel in Latin America, where security is lax. The American sources and reports say that the network has spread around the world like a huge octopus.

And like an octopus, it is able to take aggressive action with its many tentacles despite attacks against its head.These sources say the system the Arab Afghans are using is highly specialized and perfected through years of trial-and-error. Similar to grapes on a branch, the movement is organized into small groups or cells spread around the world, and including the US. The grapes or cells which make up this huge cluster are completely independent from one another, none knowing the flavor of the other, but each receiving its nourishment from the same vine.American analysts, expecting a revenge surprise attack from the Arab Afghans anywhere in the world, sometimes describe the Tomahawk attacks against Sudan and Afghanistan as putting our hand in the wasp's nest, just waiting for the next sting to come. Thus arises a terrifying question before tolerant and peace-loving, moderate, mainstream Muslims and the Western nations: are we facing a third world-war between the military prowess of the West and the terrorists?

Al-Wasat reports many Arab organizations have established their bases in the West, some of which have political leanings and some of which have extremist inclinations, believing in militant action as the only means of government reform. Other movements reject militant action, instead calling for a peaceful approach to change. Such Islamic movements represent the moderate viewpoint of the vast majority of Muslims. The minority who see militancy as the means for change, consist of less than 3% of all Muslims. Mainstream Muslims in the West often accuse these minority elements of giving an ugly image to Islam. Al-Wasat says that according to one source, the following extremist organizations and movements have offices in England:The Muslim Brotherhood (Ikhwan al-muslimoon) represented b Mr. Kamal al-Halbawi. This movement, though no longer as militant as it once was, has spun-off many groups, many of which tend to be highly extreme.

The Jihad Movement, active under the other name International Committee for defending Egyptian Citizens lead by Mr. Adel Abdul-Majeed Abdul-Bari who had been sentenced to death in Egypt for his role in a machine-gun attack in the Khan al-Khalili District. The Egyptian government accused him of being a member of The Jihad Movement, under the leadership of al-Zawahiri. Another activist from The Jihad Movement, is Mr. Yasser al-Sirri, sentenced to death in 1994 for trying to assassinate former Egyptian Prime Minister, Dr. Atef Sudqi. He also runs an office under the name Islamic Media which Egypt considers a front for the Islamic Conquest, a division of the Jihad Movement.The Islamic Group is one of the largest militant movements in Egypt opposing the government. It is not known if they have representatives in London or the US. What is known is that they have connection to a movement that has many branches in the West: the Islamic League for Adherence to the Quran and Sunna led by Mr. Mustafa bin Mukhtar al-Muqri`.Armed Islamic Group (GIA) and Algerian activist movement, This group allegedly consider the majority of citizens of Algeria to be unbelievers. It is led by Mr. Mustafa Kamil Abu Hamza.

The Islamic Front for Salvation another Algerian activist group, led by Ja`afar al-Hawari. This group has split into many subgroups. Al-Hawari has been criticized by his own organization because he seeks a peaceful settlement with the Algerian government. His biggest opponent is Abdullah al-Mashi, who prefers militancy to peaceful methods.The National Front to Save Libya, which has a presence in London. The Middle East Movement. One of its main officers is Mr. Omar Bakri Muhammad, a Syrian citizen once active in the Hizb al-Tahrir movement.Hizb al-Tahrir —a rival to Ikhwan, this movement considers anyone other than themselves unbelivers to be fought. It was established in the 50's by the Palestinian Shaykh Taqi al-Din an-Nabahani.The Emigrants (al-Muhajiroun) —Omar Bakri, mentioned above was criticized by Hizb al-Tahrir from within, and therefore established this new movement during the 90's.HAMAS, which publishes a magazine called Palestine the Bequeathed.Committee for Defense of Legitimate Rights led by Dr. Muhammad al-Mass`ari.Committee for Advice and Reform, led by Sa`ad Al-Faqih of Saudi Arabia, recently named a Saudi, Mr. Khaled Abdul-Rahman Hamad al-Fawaz, a relative of bin Laden, as his spokesmen in the West.

Al-Watan reports that the story behind the divisions in Ikhwan al-Muslimoon is not something new. Ali Ashmawy, one of the leaders of Ikhwan said in his biography, The Muslim Brotherhood made a big mistake: they regard whoever doesn’t accept their ideology as either allied to a foreign government, allied to the local government, secular or communist. They harm him without thinking. They took this stand against some of the most respected former members of Ikhwan. They classified them in the same league as someone addicted to alcohol (i.e. fasiq). I say without fear, and without being considered by them a traitor, that they took this decision and they denounced first-rate shaykhs of Islam who work for the [Egyptian] government - a government considered infidel in their eyes.

They include Dr. Mohammed al-Ghazali, Sayyid Sabiq, Shaykh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, Shaykh Mutawalli Sha'rawi, Dr. Kamal Abu Majd, Ahmad Faraj, some of whom were expelled and some of whom resigned. In this way many of the Muslim Brotherhood leaders have been expelled from the movement. Shaykh Ahmad Hassan al-Bakouri was also expelled from the movement when he accepted to become Minister of Islamic Affairs. [Note: The Muslim Magazine intends to report in full on the Ikhwan al-Muslimoon in a future issue].Activities of Omar Bakri's al-Muhajiroun focus primarily on the Pakistani Muslim community. His positions are so radical, that even other extremists say Bakri's ultra-tough approach gives Islam and Muslims a very bad image in the West. A recent al-Muhajiroun statement regarding the bombings in Nairobi and Dar Es-Salaam, is typical:Al-Muhajiroun views this incident as an expression of outrage against the dictatorial regimes in the Muslim world and the US, UK, France, Russia, etc. that support these tyrannical and oppressive governments.

The Muslim Ummah is in a constant state of defensive Jihad. We view such incidents as the beginning of much more bloodshed and deaths, should the US continue to occupy Muslim land and to oppress Muslims in the Gulf and elsewhere. Al-Muhajiroun appeals to the Muslims all over the world to join us in an intellectual/ideological/political/ struggle.By denouncing those who gave him a free podium from which to speak many Muslims consider Bakri to be abusing the English government's hospitality. The British administration is now considering exiling him after his ostentatious efforts to collect money to support Usama bin Laden.Nations’ Attempts to Counteract Terrorism As England has sought to limit terrorist activities, it has focused on such groups and their individual members, particularly after the embassy bombings. Recently Scotland Yard made a number of arrests under the new Prevention of Terrorism Act, implicating a number of extremist group leaders as collaborating with terrorists.

Among those arrested are: Mr. Adel Abdul-Majeed Abdul-Bari, an Egyptian who is head of the Committee for Defending Egyptian Citizens; Mr. Khaled Abdul-Rahman Hamad Al-Fawaz, the Saudi head of the Committee for Advice and Reform, who represents bin Laden in the West and who closed his London offices one day prior to his arrest following the rejection of his application for asylum; and Mr. Abdul-Majeed Fahmi, Egyptian head of the Islamic Information Centre.The US has enacted a similar Terrorist Prevention Act and, using similar extensive powers, has arrested and impounded bank accounts and assets of persons accused of involvement in the financing terrorist networks abroad through innocuous-seeming Islamic organizations. Among those so far affected are Salah Mohammad, a Bridgeview, Illinois resident. Accused of channeling funds from the Quranic Literacy Institute (QLI) to the terrorist arm of HAMAS, all of QLI's assets and accounts have been frozen by US authorities and are presently being subjected to intense scrutiny.

Bin Laden's Nuclear WeaponsEx-Soviet Warheads Become Fuel for Portable Terrorist Nuclear BombsCompiled in The Muslim Magazine, Vol.2 No. 1 Winter 1998 View as PDF Arab-funded terrorists smuggle nuclear warheads, purchased from the Russian mafia with opium and cash out of Russian territory, reaching Khost overland via secret routes through Uzbekistan. There, former Soviet scientists remove the active uranium to be processed and placed in backpack-sized nuclear bombs-ready for transportation to the West undetected-to explode in a blast of nuclear terror.Al-Watan al-Arabi, an Arabic language newsmagazine, reports that worldwide terrorist mastermind Usama bin Laden has used two tons of opium and $30 million to purchase over twenty nuclear warheads.

Bin Laden has hired an international team of rogue nuclear scientists working in a secret underground base to convert warheads stolen from former Soviet republics into miniature portable nuclear devices capable of striking targets around the globe.The newsmagazine further states that bin Laden developed ties with the mafias of former Soviet republics during the Afghan War which provided him the key to obtaining nuclear missile warheads from the disintegrating USSR. The Arab Afghans, as bin Laden's fighters are often called, have established extensive bases and networks in many of the Central Asian and Caucasian republics where, due to the weakness of the central government and the minimal security, they are able to thrive unhindered. These terrorist groups operate under the cloak of extremist Islam claiming to oppose the local governments on religious grounds.

However, in addition to their calls for the overthrow of "corrupt Islamic governments" these groups serve as a channel for bin Laden to trade Afghani opium to the Russian mafia in exchange for stolen nuclear warheads. Al-Watan's sources reveal that bin Laden recently sent a delegation representing himself and the Afghani mafia to meet with the mafias of the former Soviet republics. These mafia groups share a common extremist ideology and have disguised their criminal activities under the name of Islam. These mafias have terrorized the governments of the newly-formed Central Asian republics intending to destroy them and replace them with those following their fierce, extremist ideology. This meeting of mafias was a prelude to bringing bin Laden out of Afghanistan and into power in one of these Central Asian republics. Two years ago, a group of these mafia in the former Soviet republics procured a number of nuclear warheadsto be sold to bin Laden and his Afghan Arab underground. They sold bin Laden over 20 atomic warheads in exchange for $30 million in cash and two tons of opium, worth $70 million.

Al-Watan's sources say that bin Laden was willing to pay any amount whatsoever in order to get his hands on nuclear technology. His plan is to develop "instant nukes"; backpack size or smaller nuclear devices easy to conceal and carry to any part of the world. Al-Watan's sources say that bin Laden contacted these Central Asian mafias, whose access and connection with the Russian mafia enabled them to purchase not only the warheads but the expertise to support a full nuclear weapons program. After bin Laden's assistants had tried repeatedly to hire nuclear scientists to develop the atomic bomb technology "in-house" and failed, bin Laden decided to purchase "ready-made" weapons.Al-Watan al-Arabi's report continues to that Western and Arab security agencies who have been following bin Laden's movements know the sources of these weapons.

Mamduh Salim, an expert in weapons electronics was recently captured in Munich and is being extradited to Washington where he has been indicted for conspiracy to purchase weapons-grade uranium in Eastern European countries for bin Laden. Bin Laden's attempts to purchase weapons-grade uranium from different areas failed. Al-Watan's confidential source states, "All bin Laden's attempts to purchase nuclear grade uranium in Eastern Europe were only a cover to distract intelligence agencies from his real work. bin Laden all along had been sending agents of these mafias to ex-Soviet republics to purchase ready-made atomic warheads. These warheads have been delivered to bin Laden from the Ukraine, Turkmenistan, Kazakh-stan and even Russia. They vary in size and number over twenty."Al-Watan's confidential sources state, "Five nuclear scientists from Turkmenistan recently arrived in Khost. There, the leader of this nuclear group, who used to work on the atomic reactor of Iraq before it was destroyed by Israel in the 1980's, is working to build a nuclear reactor. The purpose of the reactor is to develop a new type of atomic bomb.

Taking the nuclear explosives from the warheads they have purchased, located in tunnels hundreds of meters underground, they plan to transform the fissionable material into a more active source, one which can produce a fission reaction from a very small amount of material and be placed in a package smaller than a backpack. Now bin Laden, at his secret base in Khost, is preparing a nuclear complex and is hiring hundreds of atomic scientists from the ex-Soviet republics. This is not difficult as he is offering $2000.00 per month salary, compared to the pittance $100-$200 monthly wages they receive in Russia, often not paid for six months at a time."The mafia of ex-Soviet republics sold bin Laden over 20 atomic warheads in exchange for $30 million in cash and two tons of opium.

Al-Watan al-Arabi goes on to say that Western security agencies are afraid that the atomic reactor and armaments plant being developed in Khost will be the means for changing these atomic warheads into miniature atomic weapons which can be used to threaten U.S. and Western cities. The report also acknowledges that these agencies now realize that the threat here is not "Islamic" in nature but rather is an organized network of terrorists whose intention is to build a criminal network for the creation and sale of two "hot" commodities: nuclear weapons and drugs. Their purpose is to provide these two "staples" to those who wish to bring down a government or support a particular political figure while simultaneously generating huge income and profits. Though many of the figures involved appear in the "name of Islam," they in fact have nothing to do with the religion.

Al-Watan's sources report that once the Soviet Union collapsed, the republics that were freed were so politically unstable and economically fragile that many nuclear warheads and other sources of active uranium were quickly hijacked by the mafia and sold to different nations and extremist groups. In Russia alone there exist over 30,000 nuclear warheads which the Russian mafia has no difficulty stealing or purchasing and distributing on the weapons black market. At the same time, the black market in drugs began to be flooded with opiates, particularly heroin, which can be traced back to Afghanistan. For the Russian mafia the most profitable trade is "nukes for heroin." Experts consider this lucrative new trade to be one reason for the renewed popularity of heroin, a derivative of opium, after it had been eclipsed as the drug of choice by cocaine during the 80's and 90's.Al-Watan's research shows that UN statistics for 1977 claim Afghanistan produced 41 tons of opium.

In 1997, Afghanistan produced 2800 tons of opium, and by November of this year, the UN estimates that Afghanistan will have produced 3300 tons of opium. The Afghan mafia, working with fellow extremists in Central Asian mafias, has found a growing market for its drugs. Thus security agencies worldwide worry that these two organizations working together are the greatest threat to world peace in this time. Al-Watan's sources say that Afghanistan intends to become a nuclear player along with its neighbors in Islamabad and New Delhi. Reflecting this concern, US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright defined an American plan for the future of NATO. In it she urged the European allies to adapt to the changing nature of global threats as terrorism and the proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, eclipse the fears of the Cold War.

Albright addressed a meeting of NATO foreign ministers on November 9th saying, "A ballistic missile attack using a weapon of mass destruction from a rogue state poses as great a threat to NATO now as Warsaw Pact armaments did two decades ago." Mrs. Albright proposed that NATO should address the threat by increasing its efforts to prevent proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The first step to accomplish this end she said would be to expand intelligence-sharing. Al-Watan al-Arabi of November 13th quotes one high-ranking U.S. security official as stating, "The $5 million price on bin Laden and his people is basically to permit us to catch him wherever he may be." Another expert in the agency is reported by al-Watan al-Arabi as saying, "Most if not all of the world's security agencies decided in early November to cooperate in monitoring the movements of bin Laden and his vast network from Afghanistan to the U.S., from Albania to Europe and Latin America. Many members of his organizations have already been quietly arrested.

" Al-Watan states in the report that American and international fear of bin Laden has put the entire world on high alert to fight what is now considered the largest terrorist movement in the world.Bin Laden's Extensive Network According to al-Watan al-Arabi and al-Majalla bin Laden is now working with numerous Muslim and non-Muslim extremist organizations. Al-Watan al-Arabi reports bin Laden's three main alliances are with Sudan, Shaykh Hasan Nasrullah of Hizbullah, and the Egyptian Jama'at al-Islamiyya led by Shaykh Omar Abdur Rahman and Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri. Bin Laden was able to bring Hizbullah and Jama'at al-Islamiyya to coordinate their efforts despite their disparate ideologies. Al-Majalla, reporter Jamal Ismail describes meeting with the former general director for military intelligence of the Pakistani Army, General Hamid Jol, who said, "bin Laden's group, in alliance with 30 different organizations, is planning to retaliate against American interests around the world," and added, "bin Laden's group and alliances get their strength from the Persian Gulf nations…."

Bin Laden's longtime hostility to the U.S. is clear in his declaration (fatwa) in response to the detention of Shaykh Omar Abdur Rahman stating, "The U.S. is the enemy of Islam and we must fight it. Our order throughout the world, is to kill any member of its army and its leaders, and this is a religious duty."Al-Watan continues, "Bin Laden has many front offices in the Arab world, the West, and Africa. He uses many Islamic non-profit charity organizations for his work around the world to strengthen his position and his army which includes 5000 "kamikaze" suicide bombers. Among these nations are Bosnia, Kosova and many Islamic countries, including Turkestan, Uzbekistan and many Arab countries. The main power and headquarters of his organization are its offices in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sudan and especially the U.S., under an organization named al-Kifaah, based in Manhattan. It was opened in 1989 to train Muslims to fight in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union.

In addition he found himself in need of an alliance with Hizbullah, headquartered in Lebanon, in order to establish a militant power base against the U.S.…and nations that he considers to be supporting the U.S. He brought many Hizbullah soldiers to Sudan to train in different forms of military technology, particularly the manufacture of remote controlled bombs." Islam cannot and will not ever accept terrorism and extremism in any form especially under the banner of Islam. Muslims in America and abroad strongly condemn these actions and movements around the world, and furthermore disassociate themselves from these deeds which are in direct contradiction to the Islamic teachings of peace and tolerance.Compiled from reports by Al-Majalla, Al-Watan al-Arabi and Al-Wasat

a Nation Divided: The State of the Muslim Community in AmericaWhile it is a struggle for Muslims today to disseminate proper information about Islam to the Western world, a parallel struggle is taking place in the efforts of traditional Muslim scholars to present mainstream Islam and all of its components to Muslims in America. As Islam is little understood and therefore feared in the West, so too is the traditional Islamic curriculum by many American Muslims.Please note: This statement was published in ISCA's magazine, The Muslim Magazine, before the controversial State Department Forum in January 1999. It first appeared in the Fall 1998 edition of The Muslim Magazine (Vol. 1 Issue 4).

Patterns of Discrimination Among Muslims in the United StatesWhile some Islamic organizations see themselves as the champion of Muslim civil rights in the US by defending Muslims in discrimination cases versus the larger non-Muslim public, it is ironic that these same organizations do not defend fellow Muslims who are discriminated against by other Muslims. What is even more revealing is that these "civil rights" organizations actually participate in the discrimination of other Muslim groups and individuals based on their own biases. The following is a series of incident reports compiled by the Islamic Supreme Council of America, an educational organization based in Washington, DC.

Unveiling the controversy: The discussion of Islamic extremism in AmericaOn January 7, 1999, ISCA Chairman Shaykh Hisham Kabbani warned against the possibility of Islamic extremists causing a major national tragedy such as that which struck our nation on September 11, 2001. The statement, made at the US Department of State, invoked a major divide in the American Muslim community.National Muslim organizations incite modern day lynch mobIn an attempt to censor the viewpoints of moderate Muslims living in America, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in concert with six other "American" Muslim organizations have unified to stifle the First Amendment rights of Shaykh Hisham Kabbani, chairman of the Islamic Supreme Council of America (ISCA), and have instigated a modern day Muslim lynch mob.

Islamic Extremism: A Viable Threat to U.S. National SecurityTranscript of the presentation by ISCA Chairman Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani at an Open Forum at the U.S. Department of State, January 7, 1999.Terrorist Threat in America: Extremist Wave Threatens to Engulf Muslim AmericansMuslims comprise the second largest religion in America and live as any other citizens, looking after their families and attending to their work. The majority of Muslims have nothing to do with and vigorously condemn extremism and fringe organizations that incite unrest around the world for their own ideological purposes.